• Joonsoo Kim, Hyunseok Seo, Seohee So, and HyunWook Park.
• Department of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
• Magn Reson Med. 2018 Oct 1; 80 (4): 1341-1351.

PurposeTo obtain multicontrast images including fat-suppressed contrast image, a novel multicontrast imaging method using an SSFP sequence with alternating RF flip angles is proposed.MethodsThe proposed method uses the balanced SSFP sequence with 2 flip angles. In general, the conventional balanced SSFP sequence has its own unique contrast, which combines both FID signal and echo signal under a steady-state condition. By using alternating RF flip angles and RF phase cycling, various image contrasts weighted by proton density, T1 , and T2 can be obtained. The proposed method offers multicontrast images with fat suppression by using the combination of 2 images obtained just after alternating RF pulses, respectively.ResultsAs demonstrated by simulations, phantom and in vivo experiments, the proposed method provides multicontrast knee images including fat-suppressed contrast images.ConclusionThe proposed method can be a useful tool for clinical diagnosis, such as the cartilage segmentation and the fast screening of lesions.© 2018 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

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