Title :
Magnetic resonance electric property imaging of brain tissues
Author :
Zhang, Xiaotong ; Zhu, Shanan ; He, Bin
Author_Institution :
Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Abstract :
The electric properties (EPs) of brain tissues, i.e., the electric conductivity and permittivity, can provide important information for diagnosis of various brain disorders. A high-field MRI system is accompanied by significant wave propagation effects, and the radio frequency (RF) radiation is dependent on EPs of the biological tissue. Based on the measurement of the active transverse magnetic component of the applied RF field (known as B1-mapping technique), we have developed a dual-excitation algorithm, which uses two sets of measured B1 data, to noninvasively reconstruct the biological tissue´s electric properties. A series of computer simulations were conducted to evaluate the feasibility and performance of the proposed method on a 3-D head model within a birdcage coil and a transverse electromagnetic coil. Compared with other B1-mapping based reconstruction algorithms, our approach provides superior performance without the need for iterative computations. The present simulation results indicate good reconstruction of electric properties of brain tissues from noninvasive MRI B1 mapping.
Keywords :
bioelectric phenomena; biological tissues; biomedical MRI; brain; electrical conductivity; image reconstruction; medical image processing; permittivity; 3-D head model; B1-mapping technique; active transverse magnetic component; biological tissue; birdcage coil; brain disorders; brain tissues; dual-excitation algorithm; electric conductivity; high-field MRI system; image reconstruction; magnetic resonance electric property imaging; noninvasive MRI B1 mapping; permittivity; radio frequency radiation; transverse electromagnetic coil; wave propagation effects; Algorithms; Brain; Brain Diseases; Computer Simulation; Electrodiagnosis; Finite Element Analysis; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Normal Distribution; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted;
Conference_Titel :
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2009. EMBC 2009. Annual International Conference of the IEEE
Conference_Location :
Minneapolis, MN
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-3296-7
Electronic_ISBN :
1557-170X
DOI :
10.1109/IEMBS.2009.5332753