(ASSET) ASSET is a parallel imaging technique of the SENSE type (image domain reconstruction).
Each coil element is sensitivity encoded and the covered spatial zone is mapped. By reducing the field of view in the phase encoding gradient direction the scan time decreases, but this images of each coil element contain foldover artifacts. The sensitivity profiles of the elements are used to calculate unfolded images.

See also Sensitivity Encoding, Generalized Autocalibrating Partially Parallel Acquisition.

Breath hold imaging in MRI is a technique with one ore more stoppage of breathing during the sequence and require therefore a short scan time. Breath hold techniques are used with fast gradient echo sequences in thoracic or abdominal regions with much respiratory movement.
Breath hold cine MRI techniques are used in cardiovascular imaging and provide detailed views of the beating heart in different cardiac axes.
Breath hold imaging requires the full cooperation of the patient, caused by usual MRI scan times from 15 to 20 sec.. In some cases breath holding can be practiced outside the MRI scanner to improve patient cooperation with the examination. Shorter scan times e.g. by parallel imaging techniques, or the administration of oxygen can help the patient to hold the breath during the scan.
See also Abdominal Imaging.

From Hitachi Medical Systems America Inc.;
Hitachi expanded its portfolio with the Echelon™ 1.5T. The MRI scanner combines a compact magnet and a scalable 8-channel RF system with high-performance gradients and slew rate to select short echo times, small field of views, high matrices and thin slices. Standard features of the Echelon MRI system include higher-order active shim, RAPID (parallel imaging for use on brain MRI, body, cardiovascular imaging, and orthopedic coils), multiple coil ports, and an advanced reconstruction engine.

(FRFSE, FR-FSE) The fast relaxation fast spin echo sequence provides high signal intensity of fluids even with short repetition times, and can be used with parallel imaging techniques for short breath hold imaging or respiratory gating for free-breathing, high isotropic resolution MR imaging. After signal decay at the end of the echo train, a negative 90° pulse align spins with long T2 from the transverse plane to the longitudinal plane, leading to a much faster recovery of tissues with long T2 time to the equilibrium and thus better contrast between tissues with long and short T2.
Fast relaxation FSE has advantages also for volumetric imaging as the TR can be substantially reduced and thus the scan time. The sequence can be post processed with maximum intensity projection, surface or volume rendering algorithms to visualize anatomical details in brain or spine MRI. Cerebro spinal fluid pulsation artifacts, often problematic in the cervical or thoracic spine may be reduced by radial sampling, in particular when combined with acquisitions of the PROPELLER type.

See also Fast spin echo, Driven Equilibrium.

The quality of magnetic resonance imaging is particularly dependent on image resolution (matrix, field of view, slice thickness), contrast (TE, TR), signal to noise ratio (bandwidth, signal averaging) and lack of artifacts. These MRI parameters are affected by the field homogeneity, the field strength, the coil, the pulse sequence type and imaging techniques like parallel imaging.

See also Image Contrast Characteristics.