A multinuclear magnetic resonance imaging technique-simultaneous proton and sodium imaging

Abstract

Simultaneous imaging of proton and sodium is achieved using a new two coil system and a time-multiplexing technique with a 1.5 T NMR imaging system. Distinctly different NMR parameters of protons and sodium, such as resonant frequencies and T1 relaxation rates, are incorporated in the imaging with a new dual coil arrangement. Since the T1 relaxation time of sodium is substantially shorter than that of protons, a set of fast repeating sodium pulse sequences is inserted between the proton pulse repetition intervals. The different resonant frequencies of the nuclei provide good isolation between the two RF coils. In this paper, the system configuration and the pulse sequence employed for the proposed simultaneous multinuclear imaging of protons and sodium are presented along with some preliminary results.