A system and method for performing a medical imaging process includes arranging a subject to be imaged in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system and performing, using the MRI system, a magnetic resonance (MR) imaging pulse sequence. While performing the MR pulse sequence, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) pulses are performed at least during the application of the phase encoding gradients or only during the MR pulse sequence. Data is acquired that corresponds to signals from the subject excited by the MR pulse sequence and the EPR pulses. At least one image of the subject is reconstructed from the data.