分类: 生物学 >> 生物物理学 提交时间: 2016-05-12
摘要: Purpose: To improve adaptive reconstruction of multichannel MR images by simultaneously removing nonsmooth phase and signal-loss imaging artifacts. Methods: The improved adaptive reconstruction consists of three steps: (1) modified multichannel images are first derived by dividing raw multichannel images by a reference image (i.e., a normalized single-channel image); (2) the modified multichannel images are smoothed by a low-pass filter; (3) adaptive spatial matched filters determined from the smoothed multichannel images are utilized to obtain multichannel combined images. Numerical simulations, as well as MRI experiments, on phantoms and human subjects are performed to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of this improved adaptive reconstruction approach against traditional coil combination methods. Results: Both simulation and MRI experimental results demonstrated that the proposed improved adaptive reconstruction method is able to obtain combined images with reduced nonsmooth phase and signal-loss imaging artifacts. Conclusions: A novel multichannel image reconstruction method is developed that produces high quality multichannel combined images. (C) 2015 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.
分类: 生物学 >> 生物物理学 提交时间: 2016-05-12
摘要: Purpose: Time-of-flight (TOF) MR angiography has an advantage of contrast and resolution in ultra-high field (7 T) MRI systems. However, increased specific absorption rate (SAR) prohibits the application of spatial saturation band, leading to venous contamination in maximum intensity projection (MIP) images. Methods: A segmented k-space filling scheme with sparse venous saturation pulses was developed for 7 T TOF-MRA. The effectiveness of the segmented TOF sequence was verified by Bloch equation simulation and experiments on 3 T. The protocol on 7 T was optimized and applied for healthy volunteers and patients with vascular diseases. Results: Segmented TOF achieved equivalent contrast and venous suppression effect as conventional methods, while SAR values had a remarkable reduction and obeyed the limit of a 7 T MRI system. The decreased number of saturation pulses allowed shorter acquisition time than existing solutions. The comparison of segmented TOF and conventional TOF revealed flow direction in vascular diseases. Conclusion: Segmented TOF is proved to be a time-efficient way to achieve high-resolution angiograms without venous contamination at ultra-high field. The sequence holds strong promise for non-contrast clinical diagnosis on cerebrovascular diseases. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.