MR pulse sequences for selective relaxation time measurements: a phantom study

The accuracy of relaxation time measurements of spectroscopic inversion recovery and CPMG multi-echo pulse sequences together with ISIS and stimulated echo-pulse methods have been tested on a reference phantom (test object no. 5, of the EEC Concerted Research Project). For the measurements a Siemens Magnetom wholebody magnetic resonance scanner operating at 1.5 Tesla was used. For comparison six imaging pulse sequences for relaxation time measurements were tested on the same phantom. The spectroscopic pulse sequences all had an accuracy better than 10% of the reference values.