OIL FLAIR - OPTIMIZED INTERLEAVED FLUID-ATTENUATED INVERSION-RECOVERYIN 2D FAST SPIN-ECHO

Inversion recovery may be used to suppress signal from cerebrospinal f luid, a technique which has been named ''fluid attenuated with inversi on recovery'' (FLAIR). This report describes interleaving a slice sele ctive inversion pulse within a rapid spin-echo sequence to obtain the desirable contrast characteristics of FLAIR in imaging times comparabl e to standard rapid spin echo. Additionally, the pulse repetition time is allowed to float above a defined minimum, which can further shorte n scan times and dramatically ease the optimization process. The optim ized interleaved sequence is referred to as OIL FLAIR.