General Electric Company

William Thomas Dixon

Christopher Judson Hardy

Paritosh Jayant Dhawale

Daniel J Blezek

Thomas Kwok-Fah Foo

Waseem Ibrahim Faidi

Selaka Bandara Bulumulla

Nilesh Tralshawala

Ileana Hancu

Desmond Teck Beng Yeo

Seung-Kyun Lee

Joseph Edward Piel, Jr

Thomas Miebach

Laura Irene Sacolick

Thomas Alan Early

A system and method for determining electrical properties using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) are provided. One method includes determining a magnitude of an MRI Bfield applied to an object, determining a phase of the MRI Bfield applied to the object and combining the determined magnitude and phase to determine a complex Bfield estimate. The method further includes estimating one or more electrical properties of the object using the complex Bfield estimate by directly solving at least one difference equation.

System and method for determining electrical properties using magnetic resonance imaging

Structural health monitoring using nuclear quadrupole resonance is disclosed. For example, in one embodiment, a method of monitoring stress is provided. The method includes scanning a composite using an NQR spectrometer, the composite having a polymer matrix and a microcrystalline material disposed in the matrix. The microcrystalline material includes molecules having nuclei with respective nuclear quadrupole moments. The method also includes determining microscopic strain distribution indices of the composite from the NQR scans to quantify stress and identify precursors to failure in the composite.

Nuclear quadrupole resonance system and method for structural health monitoring

A multi-frequency imaging radio frequency (RF) coil operational at three or more different frequencies, with a shifting frequency loop structure proximate the coil and switchably coupled to provide different frequencies when the loop structure is coupled to the coil. In one embodiment one of the frequencies is a proton frequency, one is a sodium frequency, and one of the frequencies is a carbon frequency. One example involves imaging examinations using hyperpolarized compounds.

Multi-frequency RF coil

Systems and methods for identifying the relative contribution of fat and water signals in a magnetic resonance ('MR') image including an algorithm operable for selecting an image signal model, selecting a scan parameter, forming a bias field estimate, applying a bias correction to a phase image, estimating the signal fraction of fat and water at each of a plurality of voxels, and forming a fat-suppressed image, a water-suppressed image, or a combination of a fat-based image and a water-based image. The ('MRI') fat suppression systems and methods requiring only a single image acquisition including an algorithm operable for selecting a relative phase of approximately &#x3b8;=&#x3c0;/2 or another suitable relative phase, employing an expectation maximization algorithm to classify the phase of the complex image, and projecting complex vectors into fat and water components to obtain fat and water images.

Fat/water separation and fat minimization magnetic resonance imaging systems and methods

A method and system are provided for acquiring images using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system. The method comprises the step of applying a plurality of steady-state free precession (SSFP) radio-frequency (RF) excitation pulses in a selected pattern of varying amplitudes and phases such that signals corresponding to the pattern of pulses are substantially immune to magnetic field inhomogeneity of the MRI system. The pulses have substantially equal spacing between all neighboring pulses and between successive groups of pulses. The method further comprises the step of reading a plurality of signals corresponding to the pulses.

Method for MRI with steady-state free precession pulse sequences

Magnetic resonance imaging ('MRI') systems and methods for acquiring multi-slice gradient echo images having a substantially constant T-weighting including selecting a first scan having a desired contrast associated with T-weighting and, given a first repetition time, TR, and a first flip angle, flip, associated with the first scan, selecting an effective repetition time, TReff, that provides the desired contrast. The MRI systems and methods also including holding the effective repetition time, TReff, substantially constant in relation to a second scan. The MRI systems and methods further including, given a second repetition time, TR, determining a second flip angle, flip, and, given the second flip angle, flip, determining the second repetition time, TR. The MRI systems and methods still further including performing the second scan using the second repetition time, TR, and the second flip angle, flip, and maximizing a signal-to-noise ratio, S/N, of the second scan.

Magnetic resonance imaging systems and methods for acquiring multi-slice gradient echo images

A method and system are provided for acquiring images with water and lipid separation using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system comprising applying a plurality of steady-state free precession (SSFP) radio-frequency (RF) excitation pulses to discriminate lipids from water, the pulses having respective inter-pulse gaps between the pulses, the inter-pulse gaps varying among different widths.

Method and system for MRI with lipid suppression

A method and system are provided for acquiring images with water and lipid separation using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system comprising applying a plurality of steady-state free precession (SSFP) radio-frequency (RF) excitation pulses having respective amplitudes that correspond substantially to a binomial distribution to discriminate lipids from water.

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Clifton Park, NY, United States of America

William Thomas Dixon