Boosting SNR for sodium bSSFP imaging

Motivation: Sodium MRI (23Na-MRI) holds significant potential, but its clinical use is still limited due to challenges arising from low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) sequences are particularly suited for 23Na-MRI, being highly SNR efficient, but there are opportunities to extract more signal components. Goal(s): We aim to improve SNR in sodium bSSFP acquisitions and produce additional tissue contrasts. Approach: We propose a strategy to extract additional information from a series of phase-cycled bSSFP images using different linear combinations. Results: Three different signal components were extracted from phase-cycled bSSFP data and combined. Results showed an SNR boost in fluid. Impact: This offers a simple way to improve the SNR in sodium MRI images, with potential applications being pathologies that alter biofluid sodium concentrations.