Simultaneous Multislice imaging (SIMUSIM) for improved cardiac imaging

In conventional ECG gated multislice imaging of the heart, slice position and phase in the heart cycle are not independent parameters. This drawback is removed by simultaneous imaging of multiple slices. This paper describes a technique which is based on simultaneous excitation of several slices by multifrequency selective rf pulses. In comparison to conventional cardiac multislice imaging an improved quality of heart images is obtained, because more acquisitions are attributed to the MR signal of the slices. The gain in signal-to-noise ratio per measurement time increases with the square root of the number of slices investigated simultaneously. This is demonstrated using phantom experiments and cardiac images.