Examination of liver substance SNR improvement on fast spin echo T1-weighted imaging under breath hold

On abdominal MRI, since priority is given to time shortening during scanning breath-hold imaging, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and resolution fall victim. We examined the RF power of the 90-degree pulse becomes the maximum signal of fat in T(1)-weighted imaging, and liver with a long T(1) value was noted not to have reached the maximum signal compared with fat. That is, without sacrificing scanning time and resolution by adjusting RF output so that liver would become the maximum signal, it was considered that the SNR of liver substance could be improved. In the phantom experiment, the difference in RF power from which fat and liver became the maximum signal was 1 dB at TR 400 msec. Although a decrease of 10% or less in the fat signal was produced by adding this difference to the RF power obtained by automatic pre-scan, the SNR of liver substance was improved.