OIL FLAIR: optimized interleaved fluid-attenuated inversion recovery in 2D fast spin echo

Inversion recovery may be used to suppress signal from cerebrospinal fluid, a technique which has been named "fluid attenuated with inversion recovery" (FLAIR). This report describes interleaving a slice selective inversion pulse within a rapid spin-echo sequence to obtain the desirable contrast characteristics of FLAIR in imaging times comparable to standard rapid spin echo. Additionally, the pulse repetition time is allowed to float above a defined minimum, which can further shorten scan times and dramatically ease the optimization process. The optimized interleaved sequence is referred to as OIL FLAIR.