Basic Bloch Equations
Jana Hutter1
1King's College London, London, United Kingdom

Synopsis

The Bloch equations form the basis of MR contrast mechanisms. They provide a classical description of the evolution of the magnetization during any MRI experiment and thus allow to understand how the magnetization evolves under different conditions and influences. This lecture will introduce the Bloch equations and give an overview of different sets of conditions affecting MR experiments. The main types of relaxation are introduced and examples shown.

Target Audience

Physicists, engineers or scientists with training in MRI who are interested in contrast mechanisms.

Learning Objectives

- Understand the main components of the Bloch equations and extensions
- Understand how the Bloch equation allow to calculate the evolution of the magnetization
- Learn about different frames of reference
- Understand how image contrast and variations in relaxation times are related
- Gain an insight into which different types of image contrasts are used in different types of applications

Acknowledgements

My sincere thanks to all these who covered this material previously!

References

-Bloch F, Nuclear Induction, Phys. Rev. 70, 460 (1946)

-Haacke EM, Brown RW, Thompson MR, Venkatesan R, Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Physical Principles and Sequence Design, Wiley-Liss (1999)

-Liang Z and Lauterner PC, Principles of Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A signal processing perspective, IEEE Press (2000)

-Bernstein MA, King KF and Zhou XJ, Handbook of MRI Pulse Sequences, Elsevier (2004)

Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 30 (2022)