Invention:
This technology is a new technique for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) reconstruction that reduces or eliminates streaking in radial MRI images without significant signal loss. It can be used on its own or working together with existing streak reduction techniques, such as iterative reconstruction.
Background:
Radial sampling (as opposed to Cartesian sampling) in MRI is particularly useful in reducing scan times and producing images resistant to artifacts caused by the subject’s motion. This makes radial sampling particularly useful in abdominal imaging, where it is difficult to keep the abdomen still. However, streaking artifacts often result in these images, making the image difficult to read and could potentially result in misdiagnosis of a condition.
Existing techniques to correct for the streaking have some success but are limited in their effectiveness. For example, one technique is to remove the samples causing the biggest streaks, but this can often result in degradation of the overall image quality, which still leads to difficulty reading the image. This technology, on the other hand, can reduce or eliminate streaks, while still preserving the quality of the underlying image.
Applications:
- Radial MRI
- Particularly useful in abdominal imaging
Advantages:
- Flexible; can be used as a preprocessing step or incorporated into iterative reconstructions
- Superior performance over state of the art streak reduction techniques
- No significant signal loss
Status: issued U.S. patent #11,860,256
