METHOD FOR IMPROVING SPINAL CORD CONTRAST IN MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING

摘要

The invention relates to a method for producing an MRI image, comprising the steps of acquiring multiple intermediate images of a subject under analysis using alternating preparation phases; synchronizing the acquisitions with a physiological variable of the subject (ECG); forming a first set of intermediate images ({MTs}) and a second set of intermediate images ({MTd}) resulting from distinct preparation phases; assigning to each intermediate image a timestamp (TRa) based on the time elapsed between the acquisition time of the current intermediate image and the acquisition time of the previous intermediate image; matching intermediate images of the first set with respective intermediate images of the second set based on their timestamps being equal within a tolerance margin (∂TR); producing a first candidate output image (ihMT, ihMTR) based on a function of the matched intermediate images ({MTs*}, {MTd*}); increasing the tolerance margin (∂TR_i) by an increment (∂t); reiterating the matching step to produce a further candidate output image (ihMT_i); and selecting as an output image a candidate image based on the signal-to-noise ratio of the candidate image.