Quantitative two-dimensional time correlation relaxometry.

An experimental and analytical method is presented for obtaining two-dimensional NMR time correlation spectra of T1 (or T1p) and T2 exponential relaxation in heterogeneous samples. The numerical algorithms used in this study do not bias the solution by any a priori assumptions as to the number of required components. The constraints used to overcome the ill-posed and ill-conditioned nature of this inverse problem are also described. With this method, the correlations of T1 (or T1p) and T2 exponential components in systems of nonexchanging standards and rat muscle tissues are obtained.