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US 2009/0276187 A1Published application
Evaluating Magnetic Resonance Spectra
AssigneeEmory University
InventorsDiego R. Martin, Xiaoping Hu, Nashiely Pineda-Alonso, Puneet Sharma
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Provided are methods, systems and computer program products evaluating magnetic resonance (MR) signals from a sample. The methods and systems can be used to evaluate MR signals from various constituents (e.g., metabolites, macromolecules) of the sample.
Claims18
A method for quantifying content of a spectral component of a magnetic resonance signal from a sample comprising:
- estimating a transverse relaxation property for at least two spectral components of the sample by:
- (a) applying a series of temporally spaced radio frequency pulses and at least one magnetic field gradient to the sample;
- (b) detecting a magnetic resonance signal from the sample at multiple predefined measurement times;
- (c) obtaining a frequency-domain representation of the detected magnetic resonance signal at each measurement time, wherein each frequency-domain representation comprises a plurality of peaks, each peak corresponding to a spectral component of the sample;
- (d) determining an area beneath at least two peaks in each frequency-domain representation of the magnetic resonance signal;
- and
- (e) performing a fitting routine on the determined peak areas to estimate a transverse relaxation property for at least two spectral components;
- using the estimated transverse relaxation properties to extract equilibrium signal intensities for at least two of the spectral components;
- and
- calculating a ratio of the equilibrium signal intensity extracted for a selected spectral component to a sum of all the extracted spectral component equilibrium signal intensities to quantify the content of the selected spectral component of the signal from the sample.
7 more elements
A computer program product, encoded on a computer-readable medium, operable to cause a data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:
- applying to a sample a series of three radio frequency pulses, wherein the series comprises:
- a first pulse having a sufficient amplitude and duration to cause proton spins in the sample to rotate about 90 degrees around an axis applying at least one magnetic field gradient to the sample;
- a second pulse having a sufficient amplitude and duration to cause the proton spins in the sample to rotate about 90 or 180 degrees around an axis;
- and
- a third pulse having a sufficient amplitude and duration to cause the proton spins in the sample to rotate about 90 or 180 degrees around an axis;
- and
- repeating the series of pulses three, four, or five times at a temporal spacing that permits measurement of a transverse relaxation rate of the sample.
4 more elements
A method for quantifying lipid content within a magnetic resonance signal from a sample comprising:
- estimating a transverse relaxation property for at least a lipid spectral component and a water spectral component of the sample by
- (a) applying a series of temporally spaced radio frequency pulses and at least one magnetic field gradient to the sample;
- (b) detecting a magnetic resonance signal from the sample at multiple predefined measurement times;
- (c) obtaining a frequency-domain representation of the detected magnetic resonance signal at each measurement time, wherein each frequency-domain representation comprises a plurality of peaks, each peak corresponding to a spectral component of the sample;
- (d) determining an area beneath at least two peaks in each frequency-domain representation of the magnetic resonance signal, wherein a first peak corresponds to a lipid spectral component and a second peak corresponds to a water spectral component;
- and
- (e) estimating a transverse relaxation property for at least the lipid and the water spectral components by performing a fitting routine on the determined peak areas;
- using the estimated transverse relaxation properties to extract equilibrium signal intensities for at least the lipid and water spectral components;
- and
- calculating a ratio of the estimated equilibrium signal intensity extracted for the lipid spectral component to a sum of the estimated lipid and water equilibrium signal intensities to quantify the lipid content within a magnetic resonance signal from the sample.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.