Pressing apparatus for magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy
AssigneesNational Research Council of Canada, Sunnybrook Research Institute
InventorsMasoom HAIDER, Scott B. KING, Mike SMITH, Jarod MATWIY, John Calvin BEWSKY, Hung Yu LIN
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Abstract
A magnetic resonance (MR) apparatus, the MR apparatus including a tissue pressing surface having one or more MR coil elements, the pressing surface being configured and sized to selectively indent a portion of an exterior tissue of a subject when a physical force is applied to the indenting substrate thereby reducing a distance between the one or more MR coil elements and a structure of interest located inside the subject.
Claims57
A magnetic resonance (MR) apparatus, the MR apparatus comprising a tissue pressing surface and one or more MR coil elements coupled to the pressing surface, the pressing surface being configured and sized to selectively press a portion of an exterior tissue of a subject when a physical force is applied to the pressing surface thereby reducing a distance between the one or more MR coil elements coupled to the tissue pressing surface and a structure of interest located inside the subject.
The MR apparatus of any one of claims 1-28, wherein the subject is a human and the pressing surface is configured to press on a breast of the human in the prone position.
A method of recording magnetic resonance (MR) signals from a structure of interest inside a subject, the method comprising:
- (a) providing a MR apparatus having a tissue pressing surface and one or more MR signal receiving coils coupled to the pressing surface, the tissue pressing surface being configured and sized to selectively press a portion of an exterior tissue of a subject;
- (b) positioning the pressing surface in contact with a portion of the subject's exterior tissue that is relatively near to where the structure of interest is located inside the subject;
- (c) exposing the portion of the subject's exterior tissue to an MR system having a Larmor frequency;
- (d) stimulating the structure of interest at the Larmor frequency of the MR system;
- and
- (e) receiving MR signals from the stimulated structure of interest with the one or more MR receiving coils of the MR apparatus.
A method of transmitting signals at the Larmor frequency of a magnetic resonance (MR) system to a structure of interest inside a subject, the method comprising:
- (a) providing a MR apparatus having a tissue pressing surface and one or more transmitting coils coupled to the pressing surface, the tissue pressing surface being configured and sized to selectively press a portion of an exterior tissue of a subject;
- (b) positioning the pressing surface in contact with a portion of the subject's exterior tissue that is relatively near to where the structure of interest is located inside the subject;
- (c) exposing the portion of the subject's exterior tissue to an MR system having a Larmor frequency;
- and
- (d) transmitting the signal at the Larmor frequency with the one or more transmitting coils thereby stimulating the structure of interest.
A use of a magnetic resonance (MR) apparatus having a tissue pressing surface and one or more MR coil elements coupled to the pressing surface to record, transmit or to record and transmit MR signals form a structure of interest inside a subject.
A magnetic resonance (MR) apparatus, the MR apparatus comprising a surface having one or more MR coil elements, the surface comprising a first wing region, a tail region, a head region, and a second wing region, the first wing region and second wing region extending longitudinally away from a midline connecting the head and tail regions, the head region being defined by a convex shape and the tail region being defined by a concave shape.
A combination MR apparatus and resting device, wherein the MR apparatus comprises a tissue pressing surface and one or more MR coil elements coupled to the pressing surface, the pressing surface being configured and sized to selectively press on a portion of an exterior tissue of a subject so as to reduce a distance between the one or more MR coil elements and a structure of interest located inside the subject, the pressing surface having a tissue contacting side and another side for contacting the resting device.
A magnetic resonance (MR) apparatus, the MR apparatus comprising a tissue pressing surface and one or more MR coil elements coupled to the pressing surface, the pressing surface being configured and sized to selectively press a portion of an exterior tissue of a body part an animal when a physical force is applied to the pressing surface thereby reducing a distance between the one or more MR coil elements coupled to the pressing surface and a structure of interest located inside the subject, wherein the size of the portion of the exterior tissue ranges between about 1/20 to about ⅔ of the exterior tissue of the body part.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.