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:
Oct. 07, 2014
Filed:
Apr. 19, 2011
Diego Hernando, Madison, WI (US);
Scott Brian Reeder, Middleton, WI (US);
Diego Hernando, Madison, WI (US);
Scott Brian Reeder, Middleton, WI (US);
Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Madison, WI (US);
Abstract
A method for measuring transverse relaxation rate, R*, corrected for the presence of macroscopic magnetic field inhomogeneities with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system is provided. The method accounts for additional signal decay that occurs as a result of macroscopic variations in the main magnetic field, B, of the MRI system, and also mitigates susceptibility-based errors and introduction of increased noise in the R* measurements. Image data are acquired by sampling multiple different echo signals occurring at respectively different echo times. A Bfield inhomogeneity map is estimated by fitting the acquired image data to an initial signal model. Using the estimated field map, a revised signal model that accounts for signal from multiple different chemical species and for signal decay resulting from macroscopic variations in the Bfield is formed. Corrected R* values for the different chemical species are then estimated by fitting the acquired image data to the revised signal model.