Robust phase sensitive inversion recovery imaging using a Markov random field model

This paper presents a novel method for phase sensitive inversion recovery (PSIR) imaging for improved T/sub 1/ contrast. This method models the phase of the complex magnetic resonance image using a statistical model based on Markov random fields. A computationally efficient optimization method is developed. Computer simulations and in-vivo brain imaging experiments show that the proposed method can produce PSIR images with enhanced T/sub 1/ contrast and it is robust against high levels of data noise even when rapid phase variations are presented.