An adiabatic multiple spin-echo pulse sequence: removal of systematic errors due to pulse imperfections and off-resonance effects.

Application of AFP (adiabatic fast passage) pulses for removal of systematic errors associated with multiple spin-echo sequences is demonstrated. The adiabatic fast passage pulses facilitate minimization of cumulative pulse errors for all three components of magnetization. It is also shown that off-resonance effects present in conventional CPMG sequences which degrade image quality in magnetic resonance imaging and introduce systematic errors in measured T2 relaxation time peak amplitudes can be suppressed by introduction of AFP pulses without any degradation of overall signal intensity. The technique has been tested on the 15N spin-spin relaxation time measurements of a 110 amino acid domain of the F-actin cross-linking protein. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.