ZTE imaging of tight sandstone rocks at 9.4 T — Comparison with standard NMR analysis at 0.05 T

Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Water Content and Flow Processes in Natural Soils by Pulse Sequences with Ultrashort Detection

Magnetic resonance imaging is a valuable tool for three-dimensional mapping of soil water processes due to its sensitivity to the substance of interest: water. Since conventional gradient- or spin-echo based pulse sequences do not detect rapidly relaxing fractions of water in natural porous media with transverse relaxation times in the millisecond range, pulse sequences with ultrafast detection open a way out. In this work, we compare a spin-echo multislice pulse sequence with ultrashort (UTE) and zero-TE (ZTE) sequences for their suitability to map water content and its changes in 3D in natural soil materials. Longitudinal and transverse relaxation times were found in the ranges around 80 ms and 1 to 50 ms, respectively, so that the spin echo sequence misses larger fractions of water. In contrast, ZTE and UTE could detect all water, if the excitation and detection bandwidths were set sufficiently broad. More precisely, with ZTE we could map water contents down to 0.1 cm³/cm³. Finally, we employed ZTE to monitor the development of film flow in a natural soil core with high temporal resolution. This opens the route for further quantitative imaging of soil water processes.

Short-T2 MRI: Principles and recent advances

Among current modalities of biomedical and diagnostic imaging, MRI stands out by virtue of its versatile contrast obtained without ionizing radiation. However, in various cases, e.g., water protons in tissues such as bone, tendon, and lung, MRI performance is limited by the rapid decay of resonance signals associated with short transverse relaxation times T₂ or T₂*. Efforts to address this shortcoming have led to a variety of specialized short-T₂ techniques. Recent progress in this field expands the choice of methods and prompts fresh considerations with regard to instrumentation, data acquisition, and signal processing. In this review, the current status of short-T₂ MRI is surveyed. In an attempt to structure the growing range of techniques, the presentation highlights overarching concepts and basic methodological options. The most frequently used approaches are described in detail, including acquisition strategies, image reconstruction, hardware requirements, means of introducing contrast, sources of artifacts, limitations, and applications.

Parameterized signal calibration for NMR cryoporometry experiment without external standard

In cryoporometric experiments non-linear effects associated with the sample and the probehead bring unwanted contributions to the total signal along with the change of temperature. The elimination of these influences often occurs with the help of an intermediate measurement of a separate liquid sample. In this paper we suggest an alternative approach under certain assumptions, solely based on data from the target experiment. In order to obtain calibration parameters the method uses all of these raw data points. Its reliability is therefore enhanced as compared to other methods based on lesser number of data points. Presented approach is automatically valid for desired temperature range. The need for intermediate measurement is removed and parameters for such a calibration are naturally adapted to the individual sample-probehead combination.