From ISOL Technology

'MRI system is not an expensive equipment anymore. ENCORE developed by ISOL Technology is a low cost MRI system with the advantages like of the 1.0T MRI scanner. Developed specially for the overseas market, the ENCORE is gaining popularity in the domestic market by medium sized hospitals.
Due to the optimum RF and Gradient application technology. ENCORE enables to obtain high resolution imaging and 2D/3D Angio images which was only possible in high field MR systems.'
- Less consumption of the helium gas due to the ultra-lightweight magnet specially designed and manufactured for ISOL. - Cost efficiency MR system due to air cooling type (equivalent to permanent magnetic). - Patient processing speed of less than 20 minutes.'

Contrast is the relative difference of signal intensities in two adjacent regions of an image.
Due to the T1 and T2 relaxation properties in magnetic resonance imaging, differentiation between various tissues in the body is possible. Tissue contrast is affected by not only the T1 and T2 values of specific tissues, but also the differences in the magnetic field strength, temperature changes, and many other factors. Good tissue contrast relies on optimal selection of appropriate pulse sequences (spin echo, inversion recovery, gradient echo, turbo sequences and slice profile).
Important pulse sequence parameters are TR (repetition time), TE (time to echo or echo time), TI (time for inversion or inversion time) and flip angle. They are associated with such parameters as proton density and T1 or T2 relaxation times. The values of these parameters are influenced differently by different tissues and by healthy and diseased sections of the same tissue.
For the T1 weighting it is important to select a correct TR or TI. T2 weighted images depend on a correct choice of the TE. Tissues vary in their T1 and T2 times, which are manipulated in MRI by selection of TR, TI, and TE, respectively. Flip angles mainly affect the strength of the signal measured, but also affect the TR/TI/TE parameters.
Conditions necessary to produce different weighted images:
T1 Weighted Image: TR value equal or less than the tissue specific T1 time - TE value less than the tissue specific T2 time.
T2 Weighted Image: TR value much greater than the tissue specific T1 time - TE value greater or equal than the tissue specific T2 time.
Proton Density Weighted Image: TR value much greater than the tissue specific T1 time - TE value less than the tissue specific T2 time.

See also Image Contrast Characteristics, Contrast Reversal, Contrast Resolution, and Contrast to Noise Ratio.

Fat suppression is the process of utilizing specific MRI parameters to remove the deleterious effects of fat from the resulting images , e.g. with STIR, FAT SAT sequences, water selective (PROSET WATS - water only selection, also FATS - fat only selection possible) excitation techniques, or pulse sequences based on the Dixon method.
Spin magnetization can be modulated by using special RF pulses. CHESS or its variations like SPIR, SPAIR (Spectral Selection Attenuated Inversion Recovery) and FAT SAT use frequency selective excitation pulses, which produce fat saturation.
Fat suppression techniques are nearly used in all body parts and belong to every standard MRI protocol of joints like knee, shoulder, hips, etc. Imaging of, e.g. the foot can induce bad fat suppression with SPIR/FAT SAT due to the asymmetric volume of this body part. The volume of the foot alters the magnetic field to a different degree than the smaller volume of the lower leg affecting the protons there. There is only a small band of tissue where the fat protons are precessing at the frequency expected, resulting in frequency selective fat saturation working only in that area. This can be corrected by volume shimming or creating a more symmetrical volume being imaged with water bags.
Even with their longer scan time and motion sensitivity, STIR (short T1/tau inversion recovery) sequences are often the better choice to suppress fat. STIR images are also preferred because of the decreased sensitivity to field inhomogeneities, permitting larger fields of views when compared to fat suppressed images and the ability to image away from the isocenter.
See also Knee MRI.
Sequences based on Dixon turbo spin echo (fast spin echo) can deliver a significant better fat suppression than conventional TSE/FSE imaging.

With this magnetic resonance angiography technique flowing blood appears dark.
MR black blood techniques have been developed for cardiovascular imaging to improve segmentation of myocardium from the blood pool. Black blood MRA techniques decrease the signal from blood with reference to the myocardium and make it easier to perform cardiac chamber segmentation.
ECG gated spin echo sequences with presaturation pulses for magnetization preparation will show strong intravascular signal loss due to flow effects when appropriate imaging conditions including spatial presaturation are used. The sequence use the flow void effect as blood passes rapidly through the selected slice.
For dark blood preparation, a pair of nonselective and selective 180° inversion pulses are used, followed by a long inversion time to null signal from inflowing blood. A second selective inversion pulse can also be applied with short inversion time to null the fat signal. These in cardiac imaging used black blood techniques are referred to as double inversion recovery T1 measurement turbo spin echo or fast spin echo, and double-inversion recovery STIR.