Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Based Quantitative Liver Perfusion Analysis

摘要

Example apparatus and methods provide improved spatial and temporal resolution over conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the liver. Example apparatus and methods reconstruct under-sampled three-dimensional (3D) data associated with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signals acquired from a liver. The data is reconstructed using a 3D through-time non-Cartesian generalized auto-calibrating partially parallel acquisitions (GRAPPA) approach. Example apparatus and methods produce a quantized value for a contrast agent concentration in the liver from a signal intensity in the data based, at least in part, on a compartment model of the liver. The quantized value describes a perfusion parameter for the liver. Greater precision is achieved for estimates of the perfusion parameter as a result of the quantization performed on data acquired with greater spatial resolution and temporal resolution.