Guan Wang1, 2, AbdEl-Monem El-Sharkawy1, William A. Edelstein1, Michael Schr1, 3, Paul A. Bottomley1
1Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States; 2Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States; 3Philips Healthcare, Cleveland, OH, United States
T1 and T2 are typically measured by separate partial saturation (PS) and spin-echo (SE) experiments. Here we present a new method to measure both T1 and T2 in just three acquisitions, without spin-echoes or varying the repetition period, TR. T2 is measured from two signals acquired with long- and short-duration adiabatic pulses. T1 is determined by varying the flip angle in two of the acquisitions. Thus, this 3-acquisition Tri-tau method employs a short α hard-pulse excitation, and short-and long-duration adiabatic β pulse excitations, all with TR≤T1. The method is validated with T1 and T2 SE and PS measurements on phantoms.
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