Blood flow effects in magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract

The many varied effects of blood flow seen with different kinds of conventional MRI techniques can be understood as the result of three basic underlying mechanisms: washout of saturated spins, washout of excited spins, and phase shifts due to motion of excited spins along magnetic field gradients. These effects can be applied in various modified MRI techniques that have been proposed for the measurement of blood in blood vessels, although none have yet been put into routine clinical practice. The measurement of tissue perfusion with MRI remains a more difficult but very desirable goal.