Systematic image alteration due to phase accumulation during RF pulse excitation in pure phase encode magnetic resonance imaging

The SPI/SPRITE class of techniques in magnetic resonance imaging are pure phase encode methods that are well established for systems with short transverse signal lifetimes. Applying a broadband radio-frequency pulse in the presence of a magnetic field gradient is unconventional in MRI but fundamental to these methods. Ordinarily, it is assumed that the excitation is instantaneous and any possible phase evolution during the RF pulse is ignored. High quality, quantitative imaging of a variety of samples over many years suggests that the off-resonance effects of the RF pulse, with consequent phase accumulation during the pulse, are not significant. However, a reconsideration of the RF pulse behavior in related work has shown that phase accumulation during the pulse may be non-negligible in some circumstances.

The effect of phase accumulation during the RF pulse is investigated through simulation of one-dimensional SPI experiments and is shown to manifest as a systematic scaling of the image field-of-view (FOV). The FOV scaling effect is also verified experimentally. One-dimensional profiles of a cylindrical elastomer sample were acquired employing a 2.4 T horizontal bore magnet. Experiments were undertaken with variation of the experimental RF pulse duration. Under typical experimental parameters, neglecting the phase accumulation during the RF pulse is acceptable.