An On-the-Fly Radiofrequency Pulse for Bilateral Excitation with Independently Modulated Phase

INTRODUCTION: Numerous applications of MRI can benefit from imaging multiple 3D volumes, such as breast, kidney, and lower extremity imaging. As with 3D imaging compared to multislice imaging, simultaneous excitation of all volumes can improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the acquisition compared to sequential imaging of each volume [1], is particularly useful for dynamic imaging of contrast applications where synchronous timing for all slabs is desired, and allows parallel imaging across volumes. In many applications the volumes are separated in the phase-encode direction, requiring encoding across both the volumes of interest and the space between them.