Improvement of Chemical Shift Selective Saturation (CHESS) Pulse for MR Angiography

We improved the fat suppression technique based on chemical shift selective saturation (CHESS). To do this, we shortened the duration of the CHESS pulse to achieve a short repetition time (TR) for MR angiography (MRA). A short-duration CHESS pulse causes broad frequency band saturation, creating extensive offset from the resonance frequency of water. In our phantom experiment, the best parameters of the short-duration CHESS pulse were 3.84 ms in duration, -650 Hz in offset frequency from water resonance, and had a 130-degree flip angle. With this technique, MRA will be able to be carried out without a significant increase in TR. Thus, better vessel contrast will be maintained in time-of-flight (TOF) MRA or contrast-enhanced MRA when using the maximum intensity projection (MIP) method.