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:
Jun. 13, 2000
Filed:
Jul. 31, 1996
Mark J Loncar, Richmond Heights, OH (US);
Rao P Gullapalli, Richmond Heights, OH (US);
Picker International, Inc., Highland Heights, OH (US);
Abstract
After exciting magnetic resonance (60), a train of magnetic resonance echoes including echoes (70.sub.1, 70.sub.2, . . . ) is induced, e.g., with a series of refocusing pulses including pulses (72.sub.1, 72.sub.2, . . . ). The echoes are phase and frequency-encoded appropriately for generating at least first and second images (94, 98). The first image echoes are interleaved with the second image echoes, for example, odd-numbered echoes for the first image and even-numbered echoes for the second image. To select the effective first/second image echo time, the first/second image echo which follows resonance excitation by a time closest to the selected first/second image effective echo time is given the zero or minimum phase-encoding. Nearby echoes being encoded with low phase-encode angles. In this manner, the effective echo times of the first and second images are selected to have preselected relative contrasts of diagnostic interest. Typically, the effective echo times of both the first and second image is less than the time between resonance excitation and the eighth echo, even although the echo train may be 32, 64, 128, or more echoes.