Figure 1

3D single-phase images acquired with GRE (a-d) and SSFP (e-h). The only difference between these acquisitions is the amplitude of the slab encoding gradient, resulting in no changes in SNR other than those introduced by inflow. Thicker slabs results in loss of blood-myocardium contrast for both GRE and SSFP. Contrast in non-moving tissues remains exactly the same through the four distict acquisitions. SSFP is less susceptible to contrast losses.