Abstract
Soft tissue contrast in MRI arises due to the differences between the tissues characteristic relaxation times. The type of pulse sequence and its parameters determines whether the image contrast is weighted by the T1, T2 or T2* relaxation processes. For Spin Echo (SE) pulse sequences, the TR controls the T1-weighting while the TE controls the T2* weighting. For Gradient echo (GE) pulse sequences, the TR and the flip angle control the T1-weighting while the TE controls the T2* weighting. A long TR and short TE produces proton density-weighted contrast, a short TR and short TE produces T1-weighted contrast and a long TR and a short TE produces T2- (or T2*) weighted contrast. Choosing a short TR and long TE combination for conventional pulse sequences generally produces an image with poor contrast and a low signal-to-noise ratio.
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Further Reading
McRobbie DW, Moore EA, Graves MJ, Prince MR. Seeing is believing: introduction to image contrast. In: MRI from picture to proton. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2007. p. 30–40.
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© 2015 Springer International Publishing
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Ridgway, J.P. (2015). Pulse Sequences and Image Contrast. In: Plein, S., Greenwood, J., Ridgway, J. (eds) Cardiovascular MR Manual. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20940-1_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20940-1_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-20939-5
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