Toward Robust Fat-Suppressed Gadolinium-Enhanced MRI Near Metal Implants: A Local B₀ Shim Coil Insert Approach

Motivation: Conventional fat suppression often fails near metallic implants due to severe B₀ inhomogeneity. This failure can obscure gadolinium-enhanced lesions. Goal(s): A method for robust fat suppression during gadolinium-enhanced MRI near metal implants. Approach: A 7-channel local B₀ shim coil insert was developed. Phantom and in vivo experiments were performed on a 3 T MRI scanner, comparing the shim insert to standard second-order SH shimming. Results: With ~37% reduced B₀ RMSE, the shim insert suppressed fat signals that remained bright under standard shimming, enabling reliable fat-suppressed MRI despite severe B₀ inhomogeneity. Impact: This hardware-based local B₀ shim approach can transform musculoskeletal MRI near metal implants by enabling uniform fat suppression and clarifying gadolinium-enhanced lesions, thus improving clinical diagnoses. Future investigations may expand this strategy to broader anatomies and more severe off-resonance scenarios.