Patent · US Active

Method for increasing signal-to-noise ratio in magnetic resonance imaging using per-voxel noise covariance regularization

US10429475B2 · kind B2 · utility

2Cited by

4References

17Claims

0Family size

Assignee

The General Hospital Corporation · US

Inventors

Jonathan R. Polimeni · Cambridge, US
Kawin Setsompop · Boston, US
Lawrence L. Wald · Cambridge, US

Key dates

Filing date	Mar 12, 2014
Grant date	Oct 1, 2019
Priority date	—
Expiry date	Dec 31, 2035

Classification

Technology area (CPC G)Physics
CPC primaryG01V3/14
WIPO fieldMeasurement
WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A method for maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio (“SNR”) in a combined image produced using a parallel magnetic resonance imaging (“MRI”) technique is provided. The image combination used in such techniques require an accurate estimate of the noise covariance. Typically, the thermal noise covariance matrix is used as this estimate; however, in several applications, including accelerated parallel imaging and functional MRI, the noise covariance across the coil channels differs substantially from the thermal noise covariance. By combining the individual channels with more accurate estimates of the channel noise covariance, SNR in the combined data is significantly increased. This improved combination employs a regularization of noise covariance on a per-voxel basis.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.