Rapid MRI method for mapping the longitudinal relaxation time.

A novel method for mapping the longitudinal relaxation time in a clinically acceptable time is developed based on a recent proposal [J.-J. Hsu, I.J. Lowe, Spin-lattice relaxation and a fast T1-map acquisition method in MRI with transient-state magnetization, J. Magn. Reson. 169 (2004) 270-278] and the speed of the spiral pulse sequence. The method acquires multiple curve-fitting samples with one RF pulse train. It does not require RF pulses of specific flip angles (e.g., 90 degrees or 180 degrees ), nor are the long recovery waiting time and the measurement of the magnetization at thermal equilibrium needed. Given the value of the flip angle, the curve fitting is semi-logarithmic and not computationally intensive. On a heterogeneous phantom, the average percentage difference between measurements of the present method and those of an inversion-recovery method is below 2.7%. In mapping the human brain, the present method, for example, can obtain four curve-fitting samples for five 128 x 128 slices in less than 3.2s and the results are in agreement with other studies in the literature.