Development of a novel sequence for T2* quantification of slow-relaxing water pools in the brain

T2* relaxation in the brain covers a broad range of values, which can be grouped in three, roughly logarithmically spaced, intervals (short, intermediate, very long). Using a multi-echo GRE sequence to quantify T2* is time-efficient for brain parenchyma, but accurate quantification of slow-relaxing water pools, such as CSF, lengthens the acquisition time. In this work, we propose a novel sequence (ES-QUTE) that combines multi-echo acquisition with echo shifting techniques to effectively quantify the whole range of T2* relaxation times in the brain without increasing the scan time. In addition, ES-QUTE simultaneously characterises fast diffusion.