Apparatus, method and computer-accessible medium for determination of electrical properties of tissues and materials using multiple radio frequency measurements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9588203-B2
Application number	US-201113313808-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 7, 2011
Priority date	Dec 7, 2010
Publication date	Mar 7, 2017
Grant date	Mar 7, 2017

Abstract

An assembly for determining at least one electrical property of an object. The assembly includes at least one transmitter that can generate a plurality of electromagnetic field distribution patterns directed at an object. The assembly also includes a data apparatus with an MRI apparatus and a data processor. The MRI apparatus can produce at least one image of the object using a magnitude or a phase modulated by the electromagnetic field distribution patterns. The processor can then process data associated with the object to determine the at least one electrical property the object.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An assembly that determines at least one of a conductivity or a permittivity of an object, comprising:
at least one transmitter configured to generate a plurality of electromagnetic field distribution patterns directed at an object; and
a data apparatus, including:
a magnetic resonance (MR) imaging apparatus configured to produce at least two MR images of the object using at least one of a magnitude or a phase modulated by the electromagnetic field distribution patterns; and
a hardware processing arrangement configured to determine the at least one of the conductivity or the permittivity of the object from the at least two produced MR images of the object.

2. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the at least one transmitter includes at least one radio frequency (“RF”) coil.

3. The assembly of claim 2 , wherein the at least one RF coil includes at least one of a plurality of RF coils (i) disposed at a plurality of locations (ii) sequentially disposed at a plurality of locations.

4. The assembly of claim 2 , wherein the at least one RF coil includes at least one RF transmit coil and at least one RF receive coil.

5. The assembly of claim 1 , wherein the at least one transmitter includes at least one of a plurality of RF current-inducing leads (i) disposed at a plurality of locations or (ii) sequentially disposed at a plurality of locations.

6. The assembly of claim 1 , wherein the at least one transmitter includes a plurality of passive field-altering object sequentially placed at a plurality of locations.

7. The assembly of claim 1 , wherein the hardware processing arrangement is further configured to resolve relationships for the at least one of the conductivity or the permittivity of the object from the at least two produced images.

8. A method of mapping at least one of a conductivity or a permittivity of an object, comprising:
generating a plurality of electromagnetic field patterns using a magnetic resonance (MR) arrangement;
generating a plurality of MR images with the MR arrangement and the MR images having at least one of a magnitude or a phase associated with the generated electromagnetic field patterns;
generating, with a hardware processing arrangement, a plurality of relationships relating the generated MR images to (i) the generated electromagnetic field patterns, and (ii) the at least one of the conductivity or the permittivity of the object;
resolving with the hardware processing arrangement, the relationships for the at least one of the conductivity or the permittivity from the generated MR images, and
mapping with the hardware processing arrangement, the at least one of the conductivity or the permittivity of the object from the resolved relationships.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the generation of electromagnetic field patterns is performed using at least one transmitter that includes at least one radio frequency (“RF”) coil.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the at least one RF coil includes at least one of a plurality of RF coils (i) disposed at a plurality of locations (ii) sequentially disposed at a plurality of locations.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the at least one RF coil includes at least one RF transmit coil and at least one RF receive coil.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the generation of electromagnetic field patterns is performed using at least one transmitter that includes at least one of a plurality of radio-frequency (“RF”) current-inducing leads disposed (i) at a plurality of locations or (ii) sequentially disposed at a plurality of locations.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the generation of electromagnetic field patterns is performed with at least one transmitter that includes a plurality of passive field-altering objects sequentially placed at a plurality of locations.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that determines at least one of a conductivity or a permittivity of an object, wherein, when a computer arrangement executes the instructions, the computer arrangement is configured to perform procedures comprising:
generating a plurality of magnetic resonance (“MR”) images with at least one of a magnitude or a phase associated with previously generated electromagnetic field patterns;
generating a plurality of relationships relating the generated MR images to the previously generated electromagnetic field patterns, and to the at least one of the conductivity or the permittivity of the object;
resolving the relationships for the at least one of the conductivity or the permittivity from the generated MR images; and
determining the at least one of the conductivity or the permittivity of an object; and
storing the at least one of the conductivity or the permittivity in a storage device.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the generation of electromagnetic field patterns is performed using at least one transmitter that includes at least one radio frequency (“RF”) coil.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the at least one RF coil includes at least one of a plurality of RF coils (i) disposed at a plurality of locations, (ii) sequentially disposed at a plurality of locations.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the at least one RF coil includes at least one RF transmit coil and at least one RF receive coil.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the generation of electromagnetic field patterns is performed using at least one transmitter that includes at least one of a plurality of radio-frequency (“RF”) current-inducing leads disposed .(j). at a plurality of locations or an RF current inducing lead (ii) sequentially disposed at a plurality of locations.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the generation of electromagnetic field patterns is performed with at least one transmitter that includes a plurality of passive field-altering objects sequentially placed at a plurality of locations.

Assignees

• Zhu Yudong
• Sodickson Daniel K
• Univ New York

Inventors

• Zhu Yudong
• Sodickson Daniel K

Classifications

• G01R33/48 Primary

  NMR imaging systems · CPC title