Method and system of MR imaging with simultaneous fat suppression and T1 inversion recovery contrast

A method of MR imaging with fat suppression comprising the steps of:

• non-selectively inverting spins in a region-of-interest (ROI);
• restoring longitudinal magnetization of fat spins in the ROI;
• suppressing longitudinal magnetization of the fat spins after the longitudinal magnetization is restored to an equilibrium;
• and
• acquiring MR signals from the ROI;
• and
• reconstructing an MR image from the acquired MR signals.

A pulse sequence stored in memory of a computer and operationally carried out by an MR scanner to produce an MR image, the pulse sequence comprising;

• a preparatory segment defined by a primary IR prep RF pulse that is non-spectrally selective, a secondary IR prep RF pulse that is spectrally selective, and a spectrum-targeted suppression RF pulse;
• an acquisition segment defined by a readout sequence;
• and
• wherein an MR scanner acquires MR signals during the readout sequence and stores the MR signals for use by a user in a tangible result.

A computer readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon and representing a set of instructions that when executed by a computer causes the computer to:

• apply a non-spectrally selective IR pulse;
• apply a spectrally selective IR pulse immediately after the non-spectrally selective IR pulse;
• apply a fat suppression RF pulse;
• acquire fat suppressed MR data;
• and
• produce an MR image therefrom.