Improved compression of SAR matrices by a reformulation of the generalized virtual observation point compression scheme

Summary of Main Findings:

The Virtual Observation Points compression problem is reformulated to further reduce by a factor ~5 the number of SAR matrices used for RF pulse design and exam supervision.

Synopsis:

Parallel transmission to date is the most promising technology to tackle the RF field inhomogeneity problem in MRI at ultra-high field. The Virtual Observation Point compression technique was a cornerstone in the field to reduce drastically the number of SAR matrices to handle in exam supervision and RF pulse design. After its original discovery, it was further improved to boost the compression. This work describes a reformulation of the problem which simplifies substantially the numerical search and allows reducing further the number of matrices by a factor ~5 or more