Complex reconstruction of Q-space for simultaneous detection of coherent and incoherent motion

US8908951B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• General Electric Company · US

Inventors

• Marion Irene Menzel · Munich, DE
• Christopher Judson Hardy · Niskayuna, US
• Kevin F. King · New Berlin, US
• Luca Marinelli · Schenectady, US
• Ek Tsoon Tan · Niskayuna, US
• Jonathan Immanuel Sperl · Freising, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 27, 2012
• Grant date: Dec 9, 2014
• Expiry date: Jul 12, 2033

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01R33/56341
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A magnetic resonance (MR) imaging method includes acquiring MR signals having phase and magnitude at q-space locations using a diffusion sensitizing pulse sequence performed on a tissue of interest, wherein the acquired signals each include a set of complex Fourier encodings representing a three-dimensional displacement distribution of the spins in a q-space location. The signals each include information relating to coherent motion and incoherent motion in the q-space location. The method also includes determining a contribution by coherent motion to the phase of the acquired MR signals; removing the phase contribution attributable to coherent motion from the acquired MR signals to produce a complex data set for each q-space location and an image of velocity components for each q-space location; and producing a three-dimensional velocity image from the image of the velocity components.