EPISTAR MRI - MULTISLICE MAPPING OF CEREBRAL BLOOD-FLOW

A method is described for multislice EPISTAR that perfectly compensate s magnetization transfer effects. Inflowing arterial spins are labeled with a 360 degrees adiabatic pulse. Two control tags are applied sequ entially at the same location as the labeling pulse, each with a 180 d egrees adiabatic pulse so the total RF irradiation, frequency shift, a nd bandwidth of the labeling and control pulses are identical. Therefo re, magnetization transfer effects are the same as for the labeling pu lse and cancel with image subtraction for all slices. The method also eliminates tagging of venous spins and concern about asymmetric magnet ization transfer effects.