Magnetic resonance in medicine : official journal of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
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Most arterial spin labeling (ASL) techniques apply echoplanar imaging (EPI) because this strategy provides relatively high SNR in short measuring times. Unfortunately, those techniques are very susceptible to static magnetic field inhomogeneities and perfusion signals from organs with fast transverse relaxation might decrease due to the exchange of water molecules in capillaries and organ tissue combined with relatively long echo times of EPI sequences. To overcome these problems a novel imaging technique, FAIR True-FISP, was developed. ⋯ For this reason a sequence structure had to be developed which keeps the advantages of True-FISP and makes the signal intensity sensitive to the FAIR preparation. Breathhold and nonbreathhold examinations of kidneys are presented and possible strategies to quantitative flow measurements are reported. It is shown that correction of spatially inhomogeneous receiver coil characteristics is easily feasible and leads to clinically valuable perfusion examinations of kidneys without application of potentially nephrotoxic contrast media.
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A 2D multislice spin-lock (MS-SL) MR pulse sequence is presented for rapid volumetric T1rho-weighted imaging. Image quality is compared with T1rho-weighted data collected using a single-slice (SS) SL sequence and T2-weighted data from a standard MS spin-echo (SE) sequence. ⋯ Measurements of T1rho using the saturation-corrected MS-SL data are nearly identical to those measured using an SS-SL sequence. The MS-SL sequence produces quantitative T1rho maps of an entire sample volume with the high-SNR advantages conferred by SE-based sequences.