A simple method for investigating the effects of non-uniformity of radiofrequency transmission and radiofrequency reception in MRI

Inhomogeneity of the transmitted or received B(1) field leads to intensity variations in MR images and spatial dependence in apparent concentration in MR spectra. We describe a simple method for investigating such variations. The transmitted B(1) field can be measured both in vivo and in vitro which allows investigation of sample dependent effects that can not be measured on phantoms. For homogeneous regions the method also allows the received B(1) field to be measured both in vivo and in vitro. Our method uses only a standard spin echo pulse sequence and simple region of interest analysis and should be implementable on any commercial scanner. The method is demonstrated using a variety of transmission and reception radiofrequency coils both in vivo and in vitro.