MRI - USE OF THE INVERSION-RECOVERY PULSE SEQUENCE

The properties of the inversion recovery pulse sequence are reviewed. Each of the common forms of the pulse sequence is described and a unif ied approach to understanding the tissue contrast developed by each of them is outlined. The inversion recovery pulse sequence is versatile and can provide high tissue and lesion conspicuity by several differen t mechanisms. The most important of these are heavy T1-weighting, heav y T2-weighting, nulling of signals from fat, blood, or CSF and combina tions of these. When used with faster forms of data collection the seq uence can provide a wide range of clinical options.