[Estimation of T1 and T2 using general-purpose spreadsheet software].

We performed an estimation of longitudinal (T1) and transverse relaxation (T2) time using the general-purpose spreadsheet software Microsoft Excel. The Excel tool "solver" is useful for the simultaneous estimation of both T1 and steady-state magnetization from the non-linear least square method. The estimation time is quick enough for the purpose. T1 and T2 estimated from handwritten semi-log plots were compared with the results from spreadsheet software from the viewpoint of accuracy using the phantom data. Although the data from handwritten plots include an estimation error of several percent among the subjects, the mean values are almost the same as compared with the data from spreadsheet software.