Inversion Recovery - Video Lesson

Hey, everybody. Welcome to today's lesson on pulse sequences in MRI. In this lesson, we will discuss inversion recovery, its mechanisms, and its applications in clinical settings. Inversion recovery enhances image contrast, particularly for specific pathologies, so it is a critical concept to understand. Let's get started. Inversion recovery or IR is an MRI pulse sequence technique used to enhance image contrast. The main objective of inversion recovery is to nullify or suppress specific tissue signals to enhance contrast between different tissues. IR sequences involve initially inverting the longitudinal magnetization of hydrogen protons with a one hundred eighty degree inversion radio frequency or RF pulse before applying the ninety degree excitation RF pulse. This one hundred eighty degree inversion RF pulse pushes the net magnetization vector one hundred eighty degrees, which means it goes from parallel to b sub zero to anti parallel.