An embodiment in accordance with the present invention provides a method for obtaining a magnetic resonance image (MRI) or spectrum. The method includes a step of performing a chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) or magnetization transfer (MT) magnetic labeling experiment of a subject using an MRI machine. When performing the CEST or MT magnetic labeling experiment aspects of a saturation pulse or a serial saturation pulse sequence, such as length (tsat), number (Nsat), offset (Δω), modulation frequency (ωs) and power (B1) can be varied in specific-designed schemes. Data is generated from the CEST magnetic labeling experiment and is transmitted to a data processing unit. The data is processed to generate a visual representation of the data.
CEST phase and magnitude imaging using a multi-parametric varied saturation scheme