T1 measurements with clinical MR units.

To improve accuracy and feasibility of the proton spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) measurements in routine Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), a phantom with polyvinyl alcohol gels and gadrinium diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid solutions was imaged with 1.5T clinical MR units and T1s were calculated by fitting several models to the observed signal intensities. When an inversion-recovery sequence was applied, we were able to measure T1 with a high degree of precision by taking into account the imperfection of the inversion pulse. With a Turbo-fast low angle shot sequence, we were able to obtain T1 in a short time, but low signal-to-noise ratio limited the precision. Signal intensity with SE sequence was susceptible to variation with the effective flip angle of 90 degrees RF pulse and not suited for T1 measurement.