The feasibility of interleaved acquisition of susceptibility-weighted (SW) and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) images for lesion-penetrating veins in multiple sclerosis (MS) was demonstrated in a recent prospective study. An interleaved sequence was developed to simultaneously acquire 3‐dimensional T_2-weighted (or SW) and FLAIR images on a 3T MRI system. 15 MS patients were enrolled in the study and underwent a standard MS imaging protocol. In addition, SW and FLAIR images were acquired separately and also in an interleaved manner and later combined into 1 image to visualize lesions and penetrating veins. The contrast ratios between white matter lesions and penetrating veins were compared between the interleaved sequence and the individual noninterleaved acquisitions. Researchers found:

• Interleaved scanning of the FLAIR and the SW pulse sequences was achieved, producing aligned images, and with similar image contrast as in the noninterleaved images.
• A total of 1,076 lesions were identified in all patients on the combined SW‐FLAIR image, of which 968 lesions (90%) had visible penetrating veins.
• Lesion‐to‐vein contrast ratio was 32.7 ± 17.9 (mean ± standard deviation) for the interleaved sequence compared with 28.1 ± 13.7 using the separate acquisitions.