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US 5,315,250 AGranted
Magnetic resonance imaging
AssigneeInstrumentarium Corp.
InventorsGosta J. Ehnholm, John S. Petersson
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AssigneeInstrumentarium Corp.
InventorsGosta J. Ehnholm, John S. Petersson
Estimating the term…
The invention provides method of electron spin resonance enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of a subject, for example a human, animal or inanimate body, in which said subject is exposed to radiation of a frequency selected to stimulate an esr transition in a paramagnetic species in said subject whereby to effect dynamic nuclear polarization, wherein said exposure to radiation is arranged such that within the region of said subject so exposed the capacity of said radiation to stimulate a said transition is relatively enhanced in at least one volume (a region of interest (ROI)), i.e. a method in which one or more regions-of-interest within the subject under study are selected by making it possible for an enhancement agent to act more effectively in that region than outside. The method for example also allows flow processes within a body to be monitored to provide the operator with images or data sets indicative of the spatial and/or temporal characteristics of flow from the ROI.
In a method of electron spin resonance enhanced magnetic resonance imaging wherein a subject is exposed to radiation of a frequency selected to stimulate an esr transition in a paramagnetic species in the subject to thereby effect dynamic nuclear polarization, the improvement comprising arranging said exposure to radiation such that within the region of the subject exposed to the esr stimulating radiation the capacity of said radiation to stimulate a said esr transition is relatively enhanced in at least one volume relative to the rest of the region of the subject so exposed whereby the esr stimulation within the said one volume is greater than elsewhere in the region exposed and the magnetic resonance signal enhancement for nuclei within that volume at the time of esr stimulation is also enhanced relative to the signal coming from other nuclei within the subject.
A method of monitoring a flow process in a body by OMRI, said method comprising the steps of effecting the phase of the OMRI imaging sequence in which the body is exposed to electron spin resonance transition stimulating radiation in at least a first region of interest within the body which is subjected to OMRI, detecting free induction decay signals from said first region and generating one or more images or data sets indicative of the spatial and/or temporal characteristics of flow from said first region from said detected signals.
In a method of imaging by electron spin resonance enhanced magnetic resonance imaging the improvement comprising employing an RARE sequence as the imaging sequence.
In magnetic resonance imaging apparatus wherein a subject is exposed to electron spin resonance transition stimulating radiation, the improvement comprising means for causing the phase in which the subject is exposed to the electron spin resonance transition stimulating radiation, to thereby induce dynamic polarization in the subject, to be greater in one or more selected regions of interest within the subject than within other adjacent regions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.