Patent ID: 8032335
Filing Date: 2011-10-04
Classification: G01N,G01R

Abstract:
1. A method for quantifying content of a spectral component of a magnetic resonance signal from a sample comprising: estimating a transverse relaxation property for at least two spectral components of the sample by: (a) applying a series of temporally spaced radio frequency pulses and at least one magnetic field gradient to the sample using a magnetic resonance (MR) system; (b) detecting a magnetic resonance signal from the sample at multiple predefined measurement times; (c) obtaining a frequency-domain representation of the detected magnetic resonance signal at each measurement time, wherein each frequency-domain representation comprises a plurality of peaks, each peak corresponding to a spectral component of the sample; (d) determining an area beneath at least two peaks in each frequency-domain representation of the magnetic resonance signal; and (e) performing via a processor, a fitting routine on the determined peak areas to estimate a transverse relaxation property for at least two spectral components; using the estimated transverse relaxation properties to extract equilibrium signal intensities for at least two of the spectral components; and calculating via a processor, a ratio of the equilibrium signal intensity extracted for a selected spectral component to a sum of all the extracted spectral component equilibrium signal intensities to quantify the content of the selected spectral component of the signal from the sample.