The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 02, 1999
Filed:
Nov. 03, 1997
Labros S Petropoulos, Solon, OH (US);
Picker International, Inc., Highland Hts, OH (US);
Abstract
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus (10) has a main magnet having a pair of pole faces (16,18) defining an examination region (14). The main magnet generates a main magnetic field (12). A couch (30) suspends a subject within the examination region (14). A uniplanar gradient coil assembly (40) is positioned to one side of the subject. The uniplanar gradient coil assembly (40) generates magnetic field gradients across the examination region (14). The uniplanar gradient coil assembly (40) includes coil loop arrays each residing in a plane which is transverse to the main magnetic field (12). A current supply (42) supplies a electrical current pulses to the coil loop arrays. A radio frequency pulse generator (50) is employed for selectively exciting magnetic resonance of dipoles within the examination region (14). A receiver (54) receives magnetic resonance signals from the resonating dipoles and a reconstruction processor (62) forms an image representation from the magnetic resonance signals received. In one embodiment, the uniplanar gradient coil assembly (40) is housed within an interior of the couch (30) and a mechanical adjustment mechanism (70) adjusts the height of the uniplanar gradient coil assembly (40) to align the magnetic gradient region having optimum linearity with an area of interest of the subject.