Spin locking for magnetic resonance imaging with application to human breast

Abstract

The dependence of rotating frame spin-lattice relaxation, T_1ρ, on locking field frequency, f₁ was measured for phantom materials and human breast tissues. These data were used to predict the relative signal strengths obtainable in a spin-locking imaging sequence. This imaging sequence was implemented on a 0.15-T imaging system and measurements of phantom and tissue signal strength for various imaging parameters agreed with predicted signal strengths. Compared to T₁ and T₂, T_1ρ appears to have unique capability to distinguish tumor from normal fat and fibrous breast tissues. The applications of T_1ρ, to tissue characterization and imaging at high static field strengths are discussed. © 1989 Academic Press, Inc.