Banding Artifact Removal for bSSFP Imaging with an Elliptical Signal Model

PurposeBalanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) imaging has broad clinical applications by virtue of its high time efficiency and desirable contrast. Unfortunately, banding artifact is often seen as a result of signal modulation due to B-0 inhomogeneity. This study aims to develop an effective method for banding artifact suppression. MethodsbSSFP is analyzed with an elliptical signal model. A simple analytical Geometric-Solution (GS) is presented to demodulate the signal from B-0 inhomogeneity dependence with phase-cycled bSSFP data from both a computer simulation and experiments using phantom and human subjects. ResultsThe proposed algorithm is able to remove banding artifacts completely. It also compares favorably with the complex sum (CS), which is considered one of the more efficient methods for banding artifact correction. ConclusionUsing an elliptical signal model, an analytical solution to the bSSFP banding problem has been found and demonstrated with simulation as well as phantom and in vivo experiments. Magn Reson Med 71:927-933, 2014. (c) 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.