The design of a multiple inversion recovery sequence for T1 measurement

Inversion recovery has the potential to be a powerful method of determining the values of T1 in in vivo studies. However, because of its relative slowness it is not practical to undertake several experiments with different values of the interval between the magnetization inverting 180 degree pulse and the interrogating 90 degree one. The multiple inversion recovery method described here uses a series of sampling pulses, most much less than 90 degrees, to produce a series of images. It is shown that slice shape is relatively reproducible from one sample to another and that, largely as a result, the accuracy of the sequence in measuring T1 is encouraging.