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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Magn Reson Imaging. 2012 May 30;36(4):890–899. doi: 10.1002/jmri.23713

Figure 3. Flip Angle Optimization.

Figure 3

Images obtained by varying the flip angle in the same healthy subject as shown in Figure 2. The plot of SNR ratios shows statistically significant monotonic increases as a function of flip angle. This results in increased contrast between liver and both bile ducts and non-hepatocyte origin intrahepatic tumors such as cholangiocarcinoma. Because the increase in the SNR ratios between 40° and 45° degrees was not statistically significant, a 40° flip angle was chosen for the optimized clinical protocol in order to avoid any potential SAR issues.