Fast 2D Imaging for Distortion Correction Near Metal Implants

Purpose: Multispectral imaging (MSI) approaches such as SEMAC, MAVRIC, MAVRIC-SL and others have shown promise for artifact-reduced imaging near metal [1-3]. These methods all combine multiple 3D images, each from a separately excited region (frequency bands in MAVRIC, distorted slices in SEMAC). The longer scan times of these approaches can be mitigated using reduced-excitation-region approaches using varied 90°/180° pulse bandwidths in combination with SEMAC or MAVRIC [4,5]. Here we investigate a fast, distortion-free 2D imaging alternative that offers considerable flexibility when the number of slices is limited (e.g. for localization), or when off-resonance variation is small (near smaller devices).