A rephasing or refocusing, which occurs when constant velocity spins return to the same starting phase they had directly after the initial exciting RF pulse, as a result of the application of an even number of gradient pulses. This may also result from the application of multiple gradient echo pulses following the RF pulse. The even echo rephasing phenomenon is one of the flow effects observed in MR imaging.

Flow phenomena are intrinsic processes in the human body. Organs like the heart, the brain or the kidneys need large amounts of blood and the blood flow varies depending on their degree of activity. Magnetic resonance imaging has a high sensitivity to flow and offers accurate, reproducible, and noninvasive methods for the quantification of flow. MRI flow measurements yield information of blood supply of of various vessels and tissues as well as cerebro spinal fluid movement.
Flow can be measured and visualized with different pulse sequences (e.g. phase contrast sequence, cine sequence, time of flight angiography) or contrast enhanced MRI methods (e.g. perfusion imaging, arterial spin labeling).
The blood volume per time (flow) is measured in: cm3/s or ml/min. The blood flow-velocity decreases gradually dependent on the vessel diameter, from approximately 50 cm per second in arteries with a diameter of around 6 mm like the carotids, to 0.3 cm per second in the small arterioles.

Different flow types in human body:
See also Flow Effects, Flow Artifact, Flow Quantification, Flow Related Enhancement, Flow Encoding, Flow Void, Cerebro Spinal Fluid Pulsation Artifact, Cardiovascular Imaging and Cardiac MRI.

Flow compensation is based on the principle of even echo rephasing and a function of specific pulse sequences, wherein the application of strategic gradient pulses can compensate for the objectionable spin phase effects of flow motion. Gradient moment nulling of the first order of flow is another adjustment for the reduction of flow artifacts.
Gradient field changes can be configured in such a way that during an echo the magnetization signal vectors for all pixels have zero phase angle independent of velocities, accelerations etc. of the measured tissue. The simplest velocity-compensated pulse sequence is the symmetrical second echo of a spin echo pulse sequence.
Strategic gradient pulses are integrated in special sequences (e.g. CRISP, Complex Rephasing Integrated with Surface Probes) and for the most sequences flow compensation is an optional parameter.

The use of phase encoding or spin tagging techniques to obtain information on the direction and velocity of flowing material.

(FRE) Flow related enhancement could be seen most for blood flow, but also for other liquids with some MR imaging techniques, as an increase in intensity due to the washout of saturated spins. FRE provides positive contrast ("bright blood") of vascular details in time of flight MRA as well as the physiologic characterization of blood flow.
If stationary spins within the scanned region experience only an incomplete T1 relaxation between the repeated radio frequency (RF) excitations, this results in fewer signal of the stationary tissue (compared to inflowing blood with completely relaxed spins). The degree of the flow related enhancement is proportional to the blood flow velocity and the used repetition time. The use of flow compensation (gradient moment nulling) improves the FRE especially in gradient echo sequences.