MRI Coursework Questions

Marks will be awarded for showing all your working.

The gyromagnetic ratio for hydrogen nuclei H = 42.6 x 2 x 106 radians. T-1.s-1
[H/2] = 42.6 MHz/Tesla
The gyromagnetic ratio for Phosphorous nuclei γ31P = 17.2 x 2 x 106 radians. T-1.s-1
1 Gauss = 1 x 10-4 Tesla

(1) If 1H resonates at 128 MHz in an NMR system, what is the magnetic field strength of the system? At
what frequency will 31P (Phosphorous) resonate in the same system?
[1 mark]

(2) How long does a 90 RF pulse have to be to excite protons if it has a B1 field strength of 16 μT? How
long would an inversion pulse be for 31P using the same strength B1 field?
[1 mark]

(3) a) If the difference in chemical shift between two tissue resonances is 6 parts per million and the body is
imaged with an MR sequence with a total spin-echo sampling time of 7 ms, what will be the spatial
shift in image voxels between the two tissues in images acquired using a 1.5 Tesla magnet?
(in other words, by how many pixels will the apparent position of the two tissues appear to differ as a
result of their chemical shift difference – hint: this may not be a whole number of voxels)
[2 marks]

b) If the same two tissues are then imaged, using a different sequence, in a gradient of 15 mT.m-1, what
would now be their apparent spatial separation in the image in units of distance?
[1 mark]

(4) As a percentage of the total equilibrium magnetization, M0, and assuming T1 = 800 ms, T2 = 70 ms and
T2* = 30 ms, what is the magnitude of the:
(i) Mz magnetization 300 ms after a 90 pulse?
(ii) Mz magnetization 900 ms following a 180 pulse?
(iii) Mxy magnetization at the spin echo in a sequence with TE = 55 ms?
(iv) Mxy magnetization 20 ms following a 90 pulse (without a spin-echo i.e., no 180 pulse).
[2 marks]

(5) The centres of two small, spherical volumes of water are separated by 13 cm and are imaged using a
magnetic-field gradient of 8 mT.m-1 applied parallel to the direction of their separation. What is the
separation of their centres in units of frequency? If one of the volumes was experiencing a non-uniformity in
the main magnetic field corresponding to 2 kHz, what would be the relative error in its position?
[2 marks]

(6) a) Calculate the Ernst angle (in ) for MR protons with T1 = 600 ms and TR (Tdelay) = 150 ms.

b) How many signal averages are required to improve the signal/noise ratio by a factor of 6?
[1 mark]

1
(7) Draw a 2DFT spin-echo pulse sequence, including all three gradients, that selects a slice of the human
head slanted at a 45 angle relative to any of the scanner axes (single oblique).
[2 marks]

(8) How could the slice be moved 3 cm along the slice-selection direction if the slice selection gradient used
is 0.8 Gauss/cm?
[1 mark]

(9) A tube contains water flowing perpendicular to (i.e. through) the plane of an MR image with a slice
thickness of 3 mm. At what velocity must the water flow for the signal to completely disappear when
imaged with a spin-echo sequence with TE = 30 ms?
[2 marks]

(10) Calculate the gradient strengths required to image a human head with a field of view of 256 mm, an in-
plane matrix size of 512 x 512 voxels and a slice thickness of 2.5 mm (you may assume that tencoding = 8 ms,
tsampling = 12 ms and that a 4 ms sinc RF pulse is used with a frequency bandwidth of 0.75 kHz).
[2 marks]

(11) Approximately how many slices could be imaged with a multi-slice sequence with TE = 40 ms and TR
= 1.04 seconds and how long would the scan take with two signal averages and the parameters in Question
10?
[1 mark]

(12) For a tissue with T1 = 950 ms, T2 = 45 ms and T2* = 25 ms, calculate the percentage of signal that
appears in:
(i) an inversion-recovery spin-echo sequence with an inversion recovery delay (TIR) of 200 ms,
TE = 20 ms and TR = 10 s.
(ii) a progressive saturation sequence with TR = 400 ms and TE = 30 ms.
[2 marks]