Effect of the sampling rate on magnetic resonance imaging

Effects of the sampling rate on spatial resolution and the signal-to-noise ratio in spin-echo MR imaging were calculated. The theoretical results suggest that as T2* decreases, due to either static magnetic field inhomogeneities or shortened T2 relaxation times, the calculated optimum sampling rate increases accordingly. Since biological tissues exhibit wide variations in their magnetic susceptibilities and T2 relaxation times for various isotopes but modern magnets are characterized by good magnetic field homogeneity, the optimum sampling rate should exhibit an observable dependence on the tissue type. Proton and sodium imaging experiments confirm this conclusion.