Pulse
sequences, designed to be insensitive to
flow, e.g. at every even
echo, a
spin echo sequence is not
flow sensitive.
Velocity compensation is achieved by using gradients, which are either symmetrical around a 180°
pulse and switched on twice as is the case for motion com
pensated
spin echo pulse
sequences, or two antisymmetrical
gradient lobes without 180°
pulse, which is the way to
produce a
velocity com
pensated
gradient echo pulse sequence.
The signal of the
second echo (and all other even echoes) is inde
pendent of the
velocity of the object. Thus, velocity-based motion effects stemming from the entire
voxel or from s
pins within a
voxel (
intravoxel incoherent motion) are su
ppressed with such
pulse
sequences.
If higher order motion is relevant, as it may be in turbulent jets across valves, acceleration and jerk effects can also be com
pensated for by the use of a
ppro
priate combinations of gradient- and
radio frequency pulses.
With the increasingly stronger gradients,
echo times in
MR systems can be shortened to the
point at which effects other than
velocity effects hardly ever become relevant.