Radiology, Vol 150, 163-171, Copyright © 1984 by Radiological Society of North America
High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging. Technical concepts and their implementation
LE Crooks, J Hoenninger, M Arakawa, J Watts, B McCarten, P Sheldon, L Kaufman, CM Mills, PL Davis and AR Margulis
In magnetic resonance (MR) imaging manipulating spatial resolution,
contrast resolution, and imaging time separately results in improvement in
some parameters without degradation of others. The authors have found that
MR imaging of the head with a repetition time TR = 2.0 seconds produces
images with high signal-to-noise levels and excellent sensitivity to
demyelinating disease and brain water content. In the body, a long TR
yields large signal levels that permit delineation of low-intensity
structures such as patent vessels and bone. The long TR technique can be
used in a high-resolution mode (256 X 256 data acquisition elements, each
0.8 X 0.8 mm) while maintaining image times of 50 or 100 sec/section. For
normal resolution (1.7 X 1.7 mm), imaging time is 25 or 50 sec/section. It
is concluded that the combination of slow-imaging techniques with
simultaneous multisection imaging will prove practical for clinical MR.
