TY - JOUR N2 - The spin-lattice (T1) relaxation rates of materials depend on the strength of the external magnetic field in which the relaxation occurs. This T1 dispersion has been suggested to offer a means to discriminate between healthy and cancerous tissue by performing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at low magnetic fields. In prepolarized ultra-low-field (ULF) MRI, spin precession is detected in fields of the order of 10-100 μT. To increase the signal strength, the sample is first magnetized with a relatively strong polarizing field. Typically, the polarizing field is kept constant during the polarization period. However, in ULF MRI, the polarizing-field strength can be easily varied to produce a desired time course. This paper describes how a novel variation of the polarizing-field strength and duration can optimize the contrast between two types of tissue having different T1 relaxation dispersions. In addition, NMR experiments showing that the principle works in practice are presented. The described procedure may become a key component for a promising new approach of MRI at ultra-low fields L1 - http://www.journals.pan.pl/Content/90136/PDF/Journal10178-VolumeXX%20Issue3_01.pdf L2 - http://www.journals.pan.pl/Content/90136 PY - 2013 IS - No 3 EP - 336 DO - 10.2478/mms-2013-0028 KW - T1 dispersion KW - prepolarization KW - polarizing field KW - ultra-low-field MRI A1 - Nieminen, Jaakko O. A1 - Voigt, Jens A1 - Hartwig, Stefan A1 - Scheer, Hans Jürgen A1 - Burghoff, Martin A1 - Trahms, Lutz A1 - Ilmoniemi, Risto J. PB - Polish Academy of Sciences Committee on Metrology and Scientific Instrumentation DA - 2013 T1 - Improved Contrast in Ultra-Low-Field MRI with Time-Dependent Bipolar Prepolarizing Fields: Theory and NMR Demonstrations SP - 327 UR - http://www.journals.pan.pl/dlibra/publication/edition/90136 T2 - Metrology and Measurement Systems ER -