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US 11,029,379 B2Granted
Bridge member for a magnetic resonance examination system
AssigneeKoninklijke Philips N.V.
InventorElwin De Weerdt
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AssigneeKoninklijke Philips N.V.
InventorElwin De Weerdt
Estimating the term…
A bridge member containing MR responsive material is provided in an open space between body parts to establish a correspondence between the body parts. The MR responsive material generates magnetic resonance signals in response the RF excitation, so that between the separate body parts via the bridge member magnetic resonance signal are obtained from positions between which there is at most a limited spatial variation of the main magnetic field, so that phase ambiguities between the signals from these positions are avoided. Thus, chemical shift separation, notably water-fat separation though a region-of-interest containing several (both) body parts may rely on a smoothness condition imposed on the spatial distribution of the main magnetic field. This avoids artefacts, such as water-fat swaps when separating water and fat contributions in the reconstructed magnetic resonance image.
A bridge member for use in a magnetic resonance examination system and to establish a correspondence between MR signals from separated body parts of a patient to be examined, the bridge member containing a MR responsive fat-like material that has a magnetic resonance response that in response to RF excitation emits magnetic resonance signals having an appreciable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and said response resembles fat-like tissue's magnetic resonance response, wherein the bridge member is formed by a patient support and contains the MR responsive material at least along the surface to face the patient to be examined, such that the separated body parts and the bridge member form a path between the separated body parts along which path the fat-like MR response is emitted.
A bridge member configured for use in a magnetic resonance examination system and to establish a phase correspondence between magnetic signals emitted from separated body parts of a patient to be examined, the bridge member containing a MR responsive fat-like material that has a magnetic resonance response that in response to RF excitation emits magnetic resonance signals having an appreciable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and said response resembles fat-like tissue's magnetic resonance response, wherein the bridge member is formed by a stabilisation bag that is shaped and/or is deformable to keep the separate body parts in position and provide a magnetic signal emitting path connecting the separated body parts.
A method of using a bridge member in a magnetic resonance examination system to establish a correspondence in a phase of MR signals from separated body parts of a patient to be examined, the method comprising positioning a bridge member comprising a MR responsive fat-like material in response to RF excitation emits magnetic resonance signals having an appreciable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) such that said response resembles fat-like tissue's magnetic resonance response along a path of the bridge member connecting the separated body parts.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.