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:
Mar. 18, 2003
Filed:
Mar. 16, 2001
Gosta J Ehnholm, Helsinki, FI;
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., Eindhoven, NL;
Abstract
The Overhauser effect is a technique for increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of nuclear magnetic resonance signals. Electron spin resonance is set up for example in a contrast agent injected into a patient by means of a transmitter at the end of a probe to excite an area . The excited electrons couple to MR active nuclei and increase the population in the higher energy level. Then, when an NMR signal is transmitted and received via coil , more MR active nuclei return to the ground state and create a bigger, enhanced, signal detected by the coil , hence promoting increased signal-to-noise ratio on an image formed on the monitor . In the invention, the Overhauser effect may be applied to an intra-operative situation by means of probe which is inserted, for example, into a patient in a region of interest. According to a preferred feature, the transmitter is also used for heat treatment by means of oscillator in order to destroy diseased tissue, and the temperature dependence of the enhanced NMR signal, corrected for migration of the contrast agent by the ESR signal reflected back along the central conductor into the detector , is used to control the temperature and hence the heat treatment operation.