Universal Parallel Transmit Pulse Design for Local Excitation

This study investigates different parallel transmission (PTx) pulse design methods to find a universal PTx-pulse that excites the same local pattern with a 90 degree flip-angle across different heads. Thus, it abandons prospective the need for time-consuming subject specific B1+mapping and PTx-pulse calculation, during the scan session. The best results were achieved by solving a minimax optimization problem were the maximum normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) over all subjects was minimized. The resulting pulse created magnetization profiles with a maximum NRMSE of around 0.049 across all volunteers