Evaluation of Selective Saturation and Refocousing Pulses in Chemical Shift NMR Imaging

There are several methods to achieve selective NMR image of differing chemical species with the three most popular methods of Dixon's, CHESS, and SECSI. A major problem common to all chemical shift imaging methods is the uniformity of the static magnetic field and distortions introduced when RF coils are loaded with a conducting specimen. Without magnetic field shimming, these methods cannot be used to acquire selectively image protons in fat and water which are separated by approximately 3.0ppm. Experiments with a phantom, with linewidths of 2.5 to 3.5ppm, were quantitatively evaluated for the three methods and a new chemical shift imaging method. In this study the new chemical shift imaging method (modified CHESS+SECSI technique) which included a selective saturation and refocusing pulse, was developed to determine the ratios of water and fat in different samples.