T-1 MEASUREMENTS WITH CLINICAL MR UNITS

To improve accuracy and feasibility of the proton spin-lattice relaxation time (T-1) measurements in routine Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), a phantom with polyvinyl alcohol gels and gadrinium diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid solutions was imaged with 1.5 T clinical MR units and T(1)s were calculated by fitting several models to the observed signal intensities. When an inversion-recovery sequence was applied, we were able to measure T-1 with a high degree of precision by taking into account the imperfection of the inversion pulse. With a Turbo-fast low angle shot sequence, we were able to obtain T-1 in a short time, but low signal-to-noise ratio limited the precision. Signed intensity with XE sequence was susceptible to variation with the effective flip angle of 90 degrees RF pulse and not suited for T-1 measurement.