Patent ID: 6246897
Filing Date: 2001-06-12
Classification: G01R

Abstract:
A method of producing arterial suppressed images and venous suppressed images for MR angiography comprising the steps of:setting a first velocity encoding value to establish a noise level in the phase image above that of undesirable flow velocity signals during a portion of a cardiac cycle;setting a second velocity encoding value to establish a noise level in the phase image above that of undesirable flow velocity signals during another portion of the cardiac cycle;acquiring a phase contrast MR image during each respective portion of the cardiac cycle where undesirable flow velocity signals are below that of the noise level established by the first and second velocity encoding values thereby suppressing the undesirable flow velocity signals and acquiring desirable flow velocity signals in the respective portion of the cardiac cycle; andreconstructing at least one MR image having desirable flow velocity signals acquired during one portion of the cardiac cycle without the undesirable flow velocity signals of that portion of the cardiac cycle.