A general treatment of NMR imaging with chemical shifts and motion

A general treatment of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopic imaging (MRSI), which takes into account the effects of chemical shift, motion, field inhomogeneity, and relaxation times, is presented. A graphical representation based on the k trajectory formalism which includes these effects is then developed for MRI and MRSI acquisition processes. These considerations should be useful in the study and design of flow-sensitive MRI and MRSI methods and the accurate prediction of motion artifacts in conventional MRI and MRSI techniques. We conclude by presenting examples illustrating applications of the general theory to specific MRSI and flow imaging methods.