A method to evaluate contrast in magnetic resonance imaging

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) provides good soft tissue contrast through its inherent sensitivity to spin density and the relaxation times, T1 and T2. The contrast can be varied by altering the sequence type and timing parameters (eg TE and TR). Because of this complexity the contrast between two tissue types can be varied through a wide range and the measurement of contrast is not straightforward. The authors present an approach which uses simple solutions of the Bloch equation to model the signal intensity for given MR sequences and compare experimental intensities with the model. From this it is possible to derive comparative descriptors for contrast