Patent ID: 7106059

Claim:
A method of quantifying a magnetic resonance spectrum, comprising the steps of: (1) observing and collecting n one-dimensional (1D) magnetic resonance spectra, each consisting of real and imaginary parts, by quadrature detection; (2) finding integrated values, x i and y i (where i=1, 2, . . . , n), of the real and imaginary parts, respectively, over given ranges of frequencies of each of the obtained n 1D magnetic resonance spectra; (3) fitting the integrated values x i and y i of the real and imaginary parts obtained in step (2) to a straight line y=a x+b, where b is an offset value, on a complex plane by a linear regression technique; (4) projecting actually measured data points (x i , y i ) onto the fitting straight line y=a x+b and taking the projected points as novel data points (x i , y i ); (5) taking reference data items as coordinate values (x 1 , y 1 ) of a first point, finding a sign (sign i ) of (x i −x 1 ) of an ith data item (x i , y i ), and taking this sign as the sign of a spectral peak (magnetization); (6) finding a value of sign i ×√{square root over ((x i −x 1 ) 2 +(y i −y 1 ) 2 )}{square root over ((x i −x 1 ) 2 +(y i −y 1 ) 2 )} based on the sign (sign i ) obtained in step (5) and handing the value over to a least squares fitting program for calculating a pulse width; and (7) curve-fitting dependence of the strength of the spectral peak (magnetization) on the pulse width to a given model function based on the least squares fitting program for calculation of a pulse width and determining a pulse width optimal for observation of the spectrum from parameters of the model function to which the curve-fitting has been done.