Magnetic Field Inhomogeneities (magnetic + field_inhomogeneity)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


EEG-fMRI of focal epileptic spikes: Analysis with multiple haemodynamic functions and comparison with gadolinium-enhanced MR angiograms

HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING, Issue 3 2004
Andrew P. Bagshaw
Abstract Combined EEG-fMRI has recently been used to explore the BOLD responses to interictal epileptiform discharges. This study examines whether misspecification of the form of the haemodynamic response function (HRF) results in significant fMRI responses being missed in the statistical analysis. EEG-fMRI data from 31 patients with focal epilepsy were analysed with four HRFs peaking from 3 to 9 sec after each interictal event, in addition to a standard HRF that peaked after 5.4 sec. In four patients, fMRI responses were correlated with gadolinium-enhanced MR angiograms and with EEG data from intracranial electrodes. In an attempt to understand the absence of BOLD responses in a significant group of patients, the degree of signal loss occurring as a result of magnetic field inhomogeneities was compared with the detected fMRI responses in ten patients with temporal lobe spikes. Using multiple HRFs resulted in an increased percentage of data sets with significant fMRI activations, from 45% when using the standard HRF alone, to 62.5%. The standard HRF was good at detecting positive BOLD responses, but less appropriate for negative BOLD responses, the majority of which were more accurately modelled by an HRF that peaked later than the standard. Co-registration of statistical maps with gadolinium-enhanced MRIs suggested that the detected fMRI responses were not in general related to large veins. Signal loss in the temporal lobes seemed to be an important factor in 7 of 12 patients who did not show fMRI activations with any of the HRFs. Hum. Brain Mapp. 22:179,192, 2004. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Fat suppression with short inversion time inversion-recovery and chemical-shift selective saturation: A dual STIR-CHESS combination prepulse for turbo spin echo pulse sequences

JOURNAL OF MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING, Issue 5 2010
Koji Tanabe DDS
Abstract Purpose: To test a newly developed fat suppression magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) prepulse that synergistically uses the principles of fat suppression via inversion recovery (STIR) and spectral fat saturation (CHESS), relative to pure CHESS and STIR. This new technique is termed dual fat suppression (Dual-FS). Materials and Methods: To determine if Dual-FS could be chemically specific for fat, the phantom consisted of the fat-mimicking NiCl2 aqueous solution, porcine fat, porcine muscle, and water was imaged with the three fat-suppression techniques. For Dual-FS and STIR, several inversion times were used. Signal intensities of each image obtained with each technique were compared. To determine if Dual-FS could be robust to magnetic field inhomogeneities, the phantom consisting of different NiCl2 aqueous solutions, porcine fat, porcine muscle, and water was imaged with Dual-FS and CHESS at the several off-resonance frequencies. To compare fat suppression efficiency in vivo, 10 volunteer subjects were also imaged with the three fat-suppression techniques. Results: Dual-FS could suppress fat sufficiently within the inversion time of 110,140 msec, thus enabling differentiation between fat and fat-mimicking aqueous structures. Dual-FS was as robust to magnetic field inhomogeneities as STIR and less vulnerable than CHESS. The same results for fat suppression were obtained in volunteers. Conclusion: The Dual-FS-STIR-CHESS is an alternative and promising fat suppression technique for turbo spin echo MRI. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2010;31:1277,1281. ©2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Automatic slice positioning (ASP) for passive real-time tracking of interventional devices using projection-reconstruction imaging with echo-dephasing (PRIDE)

MAGNETIC RESONANCE IN MEDICINE, Issue 4 2009
S. Patil
Abstract A novel and fast approach for passive real-time tracking of interventional devices using paramagnetic markers, termed "projection-reconstruction imaging with echo-dephasing" (PRIDE) is presented. PRIDE is based on the acquisition of echo-dephased projections along all three physical axes. Dephasing is preferably set to 4, within each projection ensuring that background tissues do not contribute to signal formation and thus appear heavily suppressed. However, within the close vicinity of the paramagnetic marker, local gradient fields compensate for the intrinsic dephasing to form an echo. Successful localization of the paramagnetic marker with PRIDE is demonstrated in vitro and in vivo in the presence of different types of off-resonance (air/tissue interfaces, main magnetic field inhomogeneities, etc). In order to utilize the PRIDE sequence for vascular interventional applications, it was interleaved with balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) to provide positional updates to the imaged slice using a dedicated real-time feedback link. Active slice positioning (ASP) with PRIDE is demonstrated in vitro, requiring approximately 20 ms for the positional update to the imaging sequence, comparable to existing active tracking methods. Magn Reson Med, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Natural linewidth chemical shift imaging (NL-CSI)

MAGNETIC RESONANCE IN MEDICINE, Issue 1 2006
Adil Bashir
Abstract The discrete Fourier transform (FT) is a conventional method for spatial reconstruction of chemical shifting imaging (CSI) data. Due to point spread function (PSF) effects, FT reconstruction leads to intervoxel signal leakage (Gibbs ringing). Spectral localization by imaging (SLIM) reconstruction was previously proposed to overcome this intervoxel signal contamination. However, the existence of magnetic field inhomogeneities creates an additional source of intervoxel signal leakage. It is demonstrated herein that even small field inhomogeneities substantially amplify intervoxel signal leakage in both FT and SLIM reconstruction approaches. A new CSI data acquisition strategy and reconstruction algorithm (natural linewidth (NL) CSI) is presented that eliminates effects of magnetic field inhomogeneity-induced intervoxel signal leakage and intravoxel phase dispersion on acquired data. The approach is based on acquired CSI data, high-resolution images, and magnetic field maps. The data are reconstructed based on the imaged object structure (as in the SLIM approach) and a reconstruction matrix that takes into account the inhomogeneous field distribution inside anatomically homogeneous compartments. Phantom and in vivo results show that the new method allows field inhomogeneity effects from the acquired MR signal to be removed so that the signal decay is determined only by the "natural" R2 relaxation rate constant (hence the term "natural linewidth" CSI). Magn Reson Med, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Effect of slice angle on inhomogeneity artifact and its correction in slice-selective MR imaging

CONCEPTS IN MAGNETIC RESONANCE, Issue 4 2009
Kwan-Jin Jung
Abstract The inhomogeneity of a local magnetic field causes an image artifact of geometric distortion and intensity abnormality because of the slice offset and readout shift in slice-selective MR imaging. It has been found that this artifact can be corrected by the projection of the slice offset onto the readout axis at a certain oblique slice angle. The slice angle for the artifact correction is determined by the amplitude of slice selection and readout gradients, and is independent of the magnetic field inhomogeneity and the main magnetic field direction. In addition, the existing view-angle tilting technique is found to be valid only for the slice orientation orthogonal to the object axis. The slice angle effect on the inhomogeneity artifact was confirmed experimentally through phantom and volunteer's head imaging for both regular and view-angle tilted spin echo sequences at 3 T. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Concepts Magn Reson Part A 34A: 238,248, 2009. [source]