Figure 1

Schematic diagram (a) and signal simulations (b) of the MATCH sequence. a. Three contrast weightings following a nonselective inversion (Nonsel Inv) pulse and various inversion-recovery times (TIs) are acquired during each TR (4800 ms). At the first TI, TI₁, hyper T1 weighting is created to suppress the signals from all non-hemorrhagic vessel wall tissues while highlighting IPH because of its shorter T1. Flow-sensitive dephasing (FSD) preparation is applied before data acquisition to suppress luminal blood signals. At the second TI (TI₁ + 1200 ms), blood and non-hemorrhagic vessel wall tissues will both recover moderately to create neutral weighting or gray-blood images to highlight the dark CA. At the third TI (TI₁ + 3600 ms), all tissues have largely recovered and black-blood T2-w images are acquired with a combined T2 and FSD preparation. The acquisition of each contrast weighting is based on a low-flip-angle FLASH readout that is immediately after a chemically selective fat saturation module (Fat Sat). The two FSD preparative modules consist of 2 and 4 composite refocusing pulses, respectively, to minimize (17-ms-long) or strengthen (40-ms-long) T2-decay effects while maintaining homogenous B₁ field. b. With the TI₁ optimized, steady-state signal evolutions for the normal vessel wall, IPH, and arterial blood during a TR period were simulated. The arterial blood signal involution shown herein is based on the assumption that inflow fresh blood is ignored.