Improvements in snap-shot nuclear magnetic resonance imaging.

New variants of the ultra-high-speed echo-planar imaging technique have been used to obtain snap-shot images of adult patients and volunteers at 0.1 T. Modified pulsed-gradient sequences together with non-linear signal sampling and activity screened gradients have greatly improved the image quality obtainable by single-shot methods. A particular variant, modulus blipped echo-planar single-pulse technique (MBEST), although slightly slower than the blipped echo-planar single-pulse technique (BEST), is experimentally more robust and incorporates intrinsic T2 weighting. An account of these improvements together with some experimental results is presented.