Preserving the excitation profile of small flip angle RF pulses in the presence of rapid transverse relaxation.

Degradation of excitation profile of selective RF pulses by rapid transverse relaxation has been a long-standing concern. In this report we demonstrate that transverse relaxation can be incorporated into small flip angle RF pulse design based on the linear response theory. Small flip angle pulses that were designed without considering transverse relaxation effects can be transformed for a predefined pulse duration/T(2) ratio. The transformed pulses, within the realm of the linear response theory, produce the same transverse frequency response as if there were no relaxation. Published by Elsevier Inc.