Improved visualization of the human lung in 1H MRI using multiple inversion recovery for simultaneous suppression of signal contributions from fat and muscle.

1H magnetic resonance imaging of the lung is hampered by the low contrast between lung parenchyma, and muscle and fat in the thorax. We show that it is possible to improve contrast greatly and thereby enhance the visibility of the lung, by suppression of signal of surrounding muscle and fat based on differences in T1 relaxation times using a double inversion recovery preparation pulses (TI1 800 msec, and TI2 150 msec) and a half-Fourier acquisition single-shot turbo spin-echo (HASTE) sequence. The measured T1 values for the right and left lungs at 1.5 T were 1.37 +/- 0.18 and 1.41 +/- 0.21 sec, respectively.