System and method for determining electrical properties using magnetic resonance imaging
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsSelaka Bandara Bulumulla, Laura Sacolick, Desmond Teck Beng Yeo, Seung-Kyun Lee, Thomas Kwok-Fah Foo, William Dixon
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Abstract
A system and method for determining electrical properties using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) are provided. One method includes determining a magnitude of an MRI B1+ field applied to an object, determining a phase of the MRI B1+ field applied to the object and combining the determined magnitude and phase to determine a complex B1+ field estimate. The method further includes estimating one or more electrical properties of the object using the complex B1+ field estimate by directly solving at least one difference equation.
Claims29
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium for estimating electrical properties of an object using a processor, the non-transitory computer readable storage medium including instructions to command the processor to:
- determine a magnitude of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) B1+ field applied to an object;
- determine a phase of the MRI B1+ field applied to the object;
- combine the determined magnitude and phase to determine a complex B1+ field estimate;
- estimate one or more electrical properties of the object using the complex B1+ field estimate by directly solving at least one discrete difference equation, wherein a spatial variation of the complex B1+ field is defined with respect to the one or more electrical properties;
- and
- display an image of the one or more electrical properties of the object.
A method for non-invasively imaging tissue properties, the method comprising:
- generating Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) B1+ maps to determine a magnitude of an MRI B1+ field applied to a subject using a plurality of Bloch-Siegert phase shift images;
- generating MRI phase maps to determine a phase estimate of the MRI B1+ field applied to the subject using real and imaginary images of the subject;
- combining the determined magnitude and phase to determine a complex B1+ field estimate;
- estimating one or more tissue properties of the subject using the complex B1+ field estimate and a discrete set of Laplacian equations, wherein a spatial variation of the complex B1+ field is defined with respect to the one or more tissue properties;
- and
- displaying an image of the one or more tissue properties of the subject.
A Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system comprising:
- an imaging portion configured to generate an MRI B1+ field using one or more transmitters and acquire magnetic resonance (MR) B1+ data from an object using one or more receivers;
- a processing portion having an electrical properties estimation module configured to estimate electrical properties of the object by determining a magnitude of the MRI B1+ field applied to the object, determining a phase of the MRI B1+ field applied to the object, combining the determined magnitude and phase to determine a complex B1+ field estimate and estimating one or more electrical properties of the object using the complex B1+ field estimate by directly solving at least one discrete difference equation, wherein a spatial variation of the complex B1+ field is defined with respect to the one or more electrical properties;
- and
- a display device configured to display an image of the electrical properties of the object.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.