Among the representative types of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences, inversion recovery (IR) can
improve the ability to detect brain lesions. The purpose of this study was to confirm the MRI characteristics
according to TI changes in IR sequences. In this study, the MRiLab simulation program a newly developed,
well-validated program was used to quantitatively analyze image characteristics with respect to the TI value in
the IR sequence. Brain tissue phantom and standard phantom images were acquired by changing the TI at
100-ms intervals from 100 to 2,500 ms. In brain tissue phantom images, signal intensity (SI) values showed the
lowest signals at TI values of 400, 700, and 2,500 ms in the white matter (WM), gray matter (GM), and cerebrospinal
fluid (CSF), respectively. The contrast evaluated in CSF-WM was superior at 400 ms and the lowest
at 1,800 ms. In addition, the contrast evaluated in WM-GM was superior at 400 ms and the lowest at 1,500 ms.
In the case of the brain standard phantom, the SI and contrast showed the same tendency as brain tissue phantom.
In conclusion, an appropriate TI value was derived for obtaining images with excellent SI and contrast
between brain tissues using a newly developed simulation program.