Steady-State Free Precession (SSFP) Family

Design: Fully balanced gradients in all axes maintain coherent transverse magnetization.
Key characteristics: Very high SNR efficiency; contrast governed by the T2/T1 ratio and strongly dependent on TR; sensitive to off-resonance effects.
Clinical applications: Cardiac imaging, MR cisternography/myelography, urography, enterography.
Vendors:
- GE: FIESTA
- Siemens: TrueFISP
- Philips: b-TFE
- Canon: True SSFP
- Fujifilm: True SSFP

Design: ECG-triggered bSSFP acquiring multiple phases of the cardiac cycle per slice.
Key characteristics: High temporal resolution with excellent blood–myocardium contrast; sensitive to field inhomogeneity.
Clinical applications: Functional cardiac imaging.
Vendors:
- GE: FIESTA Cine
- Siemens: TrueFISP Cine
- Philips: b-TFE Cine
- Canon: SSFP Cine
- Fujifilm: SSFP Cine

Design: Inversion-recovery pulse preceding a balanced SSFP readout; inversion time defined relative to k-space center.
Key characteristics: Combines high SNR efficiency of bSSFP with background or tissue suppression; sensitive to off-resonance.
Clinical applications: Inflow-based MR angiography, background-suppressed vascular imaging.
Vendors:
- GE: IR-FIESTA
- Siemens: IR-TrueFISP
- Philips: IR-b-TFE
- Canon: IR-SSFP
- Fujifilm: IR-SSFP

Design: Slab-selective bSSFP with partition encoding.
Key characteristics: High SNR efficiency with fluid-bright contrast; sensitive to off-resonance.
Clinical applications: Cardiac imaging, MRCP, urography.
Vendors:
- GE: 3D FIESTA
- Siemens: 3D TrueFISP
- Philips: 3D b-TFE
- Canon: 3D SSFP
- Fujifilm: 3D SSFP

Learn about the Steady-State Free Precession (SSFP) Family, which are coherent sequences maintaining steady-state transverse magnetization by using fully balanced gradients.