Patent Document ID: 20100261993
Application ID: 12423303
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for producing an MR image that can be automatically segmented between bone and soft tissue, the steps comprising: a) performing, with an MRI system, a pulse sequence that includes: a) i) producing a non-selective RF pulse; a) ii) acquiring an MR signal from a free-induction-decay having an ultra-short echo time using a radial k-space trajectory; a) iii) acquiring at least one MR signal from at least one echo using a radial k-space trajectory; and a) iv) acquiring a plurality of MR signals from echoes occurring after the echoes of step a) ii); b) repeating step a) a plurality of times to acquire a selected amount of MR signals; and c) reconstructing an MR image depicting both bone and soft tissue by: c) i) reconstructing an image substantially indicative of bone from the MR signals acquired in steps a) ii) and a) iii); c) ii) reconstructing an image substantially indicative of soft tissues from the plurality of MR signals acquired in step acquired in step a) iv); and c) iii) combining the images reconstructed in steps b) i) and b) ii) to produce the MR image depicting both bone and soft tissue.