T 1 mapping from spin echo and stimulated echoes

We present an imaging method to obtain a map of the spin‐lattice relaxation time. Images were acquired with the same spatial resolution and in the same time as for a regular spin‐echo acquisition. The sequence was based on the simultaneous acquisition of a spin echo and several stimulated echoes with the same intensity except for T 1 weighting which increases with the interval between the excitation pulse and the readout pulse. T 1 values obtained on phantoms were compared to those from the inversion‐recovery method and show the accuracy (2%) and the precision (5%) of the method. T 1 images of the brain of a healthy volunteer are presented and demonstrate the ability of the method to obtain T 1 mapping in vivo in 12 min and without susceptibility artifacts. In vivo and in vitro results were compared to those obtained by a TOMROP sequence in the same acquisition time.