Fast NMR image acquisition with spectrally selective inversion pulse
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorThomas K. Foo
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An NMR system performs a 3DFT scan using a set of steady-state free precession (SSFP) pulse sequences. A contrast preparation pulse sequence precedes each series of SSFP pulse sequences employed to acquire one plane through the three-dimensional space, and it includes a spectrally selective RF inversion pulse tuned to fat or water. The sequence is repeated without any magnetization recovery delays until all the planes have been acquired.
Claims4
In an NMR system, a method for conducting a scan comprised of a set of steady-state free precession pulse sequences in which a magnetic field gradient is stepped through a corresponding set of values to acquire NMR data from which an image is reconstructed, the steps comprising:
- a) performing a contrast preparation pulse sequence which includes producing a spectrally selective RF inversion pulse which is tuned to the Larmor frequency of a selected spin species to be suppressed in the reconstructed image;
- b) performing a SSFP pulse sequence series in which a subset of said set of steady-state free precession pulse sequences are performed to acquire a portion of the NMR data;
- and
- c) repeating steps a) and b) until all steady-state free precession pulse sequences in said set have been performed without any significant recovery period therebetween.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.