FLAIR
Fluid-Attenuated Inversion Recovery — MR inversion-recovery sequence that nulls cerebrospinal-fluid signal. Periventricular lesions (multiple sclerosis plaques, stroke, glioma, encephalitis, vasogenic edema) become conspicuous because the bright lesion signal is no longer obscured by adjacent bright CSF.
Why it matters to buyers: Core neuro sequence. If you're imaging brain, FLAIR is non-optional. The standard ED neuro pair is FLAIR + DWI, with susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI / SWAN) and post-contrast T1 added per indication.
Why it matters to engineers: Long TR + long TI = slow sequence; throughput optimization on neuro protocols often targets FLAIR acquisition time. Acceleration license tiers (Compressed SENSE, Deep Resolve, AIR Recon DL) materially shorten FLAIR. Application license is typically included on every clinical MRI.