Magnetization prepared 3D-FLAIR Imaging at 7.0 Tesla

Purpose: To develop a sub millimeter 3D FLAIR sequence with minimal T1 weighting and high T2 contrast at 7 Tesla. Aims: At 7T, a fundamental problem for FLAIR imaging is the lengthening of the T1 relaxation times of grey and white matter (GM and WM) while the T1 of CSF is less field dependent. This has two detrimental effects. First, the desired T2 contrast is severely compromised, as the prolonged T1 causes significantly increased T1-weighting in the FLAIR images. Second, the gain in SNR at high field is limited as part of the gain in magnetization obtained by the increased field strength is lost by the reduced…