Use of simulated annealing for the design of multiple repetition time balanced steady-state free precession imaging.

Balanced steady-state free precession is an ultrafast sequence with high signal-to-noise efficiency, but it also generates a strong fat signal which can mask important features. One method of fat suppression is to modify the balanced steady-state free precession spectrum using multiple repetition times to create a wide stopband over the fat frequency. However, with three or more pulse repetition times, the number of parameters creates a vast search space with many local minima of a cost function. We report on the initial results of using simulated annealing to find optimal sequences for two applications of multiple-pulse repetition time balanced steady-state free precession: positive contrast imaging and fat suppression.