Method and system for improving image contrast in fast driven equilibrium inversion recovery imaging

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method for improving an MRI signal generated by a magnetization of interest when imaging an object placed in an examination volume of an MRI system, the method comprises the steps of:

• performing, by the MRI system, an MRI pulse sequence containing three consecutive radio frequency (RF) elements, namely, a first element being an inversion-recovery pulse sequence characterized by a time of inversion), a second element being an image-encoding pulse sequence starting at the time of inversion with an excitation RF pulse followed by at least one image-encoding gradient and at least one data sampling, the second element being followed by a third element, the third element being a modified driven-equilibrium (hereafter “mDE”) pulse sequence configured for achieving a conversion of a transverse magnetization component of the magnetization of interest into positive longitudinal magnetization, aligned with positive z-axis and B0-field direction;
• acquiring, by the MRI system, an MRI signal generated by the object and sampled by image readout blocks applied to the object by the MRI system during each repetition time;
• and
• reconstructing, from the MRI signal, an image of the object.