Patent Document ID: 20100253337
Application ID: 12694429
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for providing microstructural information of a biological target, the microstructural information being obtained from a plurality of diffusion weighted magnetic resonance (MR) images corresponding to a specific area of the biological target, each of the diffusion weighted MR images being obtained using a respective q-space sampling vector and being sampled at a plurality of sample points thereof to obtain a group of diffusion weighted MR image data, each of the sample points corresponding to a voxel coordinate in laboratory space, said method comprising the steps of: a) receiving the groups of diffusion weighted MR image data associated with the diffusion weighted MR images corresponding to the specific area of the biological target; b) for each of the diffusion weighted MR images, determining a corresponding sine cardinal function of diffusion directions of water molecules contained in the biological target based upon the respective q-space sampling vector and a predetermined diffusion distance of the water molecules; c) for each of the groups of diffusion weighted MR image data obtained from the diffusion weighted MR images, multiplying the corresponding sine cardinal function and one of the diffusion weighted MR image data therein that is associated with one of the sample points having a predetermined voxel coordinate in the laboratory space; d) based upon a summation of products respectively obtained for the groups of diffusion weighted MR image data in step c), determining a spin distribution function associated with the predetermined voxel coordinate used in step c); e) repeating steps c) and d) using another one of the diffusion weighted image MR data, that is associated with another one of the sample points in the laboratory space, for each of the groups of the diffusion weighted MR image data until all of the diffusion weighted MR image data in each of the groups have been considered; and f) providing the microstructural information of the biological target according to the diffusion directions and the spin distribution functions obtained after step e).