Patent ID: 6340887
Filing Date: 2002-01-22
Classification: G01R

Abstract:
A method for generating a black blood magnetic resonance angiograph of a body portion, said method comprising:(a) exciting dipoles within a selected imaging region to produce magnetic resonance signals; (b) inducing a train of magnetic resonance echoes after the excitation, early echoes of the train being more heavily proton density weighted and later echoes being more heavily T2 weighted; (c) spatially encoding the train of magnetic resonance echoes; (d) receiving and demodulating the train of magnetic resonance echoes into a series of data lines; (e) sorting the data lines between data lines from more heavily proton density weighted echoes and data lines from more heavily T2 weighted echoes; (f) reconstructing the more heavily proton density weighted data lines into a proton density weighted image representation and the more heavily T2 weighted data lines into a T2 weighted image representation; (g) combining the proton density weighted image representation and the T2 weighted image representation to generate a black blood angiographic image representation; (h) selecting corresponding portions of the proton density weighted image representation, the T2 weighted image representation, and the angiographic image representation; and, (i) converting the selected image representation portions into a concurrent, side-by-side human-readable display of the selected portions.