Easy improvement of signal-to-noise in RARE-sequences with low refocusing flip angles

Abstract

It is demonstrated that the signal intensity in a RARE (TSE, FSE. . .)-sequence with low refocusing flip angle α can be significantly increased by setting the flip angle of the first refocusing pulse to 90°+α/2. In addition to the gain in signal intensity, the initial signal modulations over the first few echoes are reduced compared to a CPMG-echo train with constant α. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.