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US 2004/0204643 A1Published application
Perfusion magnetic resonance imaging using encoded RF tagging pulses
AssigneeMCW Research Foundation, Inc.
InventorAndrzej Jesmanowicz
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Abstract
A perfusion image is produced by acquiring a series of time course MR images from an imaging slice. During the acquisition spins flowing into the slice are repeatedly tagged with an RF tagging pulse having a flip angle that is modulated according to a tagging pattern. Voxels in the series of reconstructed MR images having signals which vary according to the tagging pattern indicate perfusion. Perfusion images indicating either flow or velocity are produced.
Claims12
A method for producing a perfusion image with an MRI system, the steps comprising:
- a) repeatedly applying an RF tagging pulse with the MRI system to spins flowing into an image slice and modulating the flip angle of the RF tagging pulse in accordance with a tagging pattern over a modulation time period;
- b) acquiring a series of time course MR image data sets by performing imaging pulse sequences with the MRI system over a time period that includes the modulation time period;
- c) reconstructing from the image data sets a corresponding set of time course images having voxel vectors which indicate the variations in NMR signal at corresponding image slice voxels over the acquisition time period;
- d) detecting perfusion by identifying voxel vectors having variations in NMR signal which correspond to the tagging pattern;
- and
- e) producing a perfusion image in which perfusion is indicated at the identified voxels.
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