Tailored multi-dimensional partial saturation pulses for inner/outer-volume spoiled steady-state imaging

We propose to use short (~1–1.5ms) multi-dimensional spatially selective RF pulses that saturate unwanted signal regions in spoiled gradient echo (SPGR/FLASH/T1-FFE) imaging. These pulses can be inserted at regular intervals in the sequence, e.g., immediately before each imaging excitation pulse. By reducing signal contamination from outside the region of interest (ROI), these pulses should enable more rapid and robust T1- and T2*-weighted imaging in many body and neuro applications.