Characterization of concomitant gradient fields and their effects on image distortions using a low-field point-of-care Halbach-based MRI system

Purpose: Concomitant gradient fields have been extensively studied at clinical field strengths. However, their effects have not yet been modeled for low-field point-of-care (POC) systems. The purpose of this work is to characterize the effects associated with concomitant fields for POC Halbach-array-based systems. Methods: The concomitant...

Design and evaluation of a modular multimodality imaging phantom to simulate heterogeneous uptake and enhancement patterns for radiomic quantification in hybrid imaging: A feasibility study

Background: Accuracy and precision assessment in radiomic features is important for the determination of their potential to characterize cancer lesions. In this regard, simulation of different imaging conditions using specialized phantoms is increasingly being investigated. In this study, the design and evaluation of a modular multimodality...

Electrical Properties Tomography: A Methodological Review

Electrical properties tomography (EPT) is an imaging method that uses a magnetic resonance (MR) system to non-invasively determine the spatial distribution of the conductivity and permittivity of the imaged object. This manuscript starts by providing clear definitions about the data required for, and acquired in, EPT, followed by comprehensively...

Effects of Simulated Error-Sources on Different 3-D CSI-EPT Strategies

Three-dimensional contrast source inversion-electrical properties tomography (3-D CSI-EPT) is an iterative reconstruction method that estimates the electrical properties of tissue from transmit field magnetic resonance data. However, in order to bring 3-D CSI-EPT into practice for complex tissue structures and to understand the origin and...

In vivo 3D brain and extremity MRI at 50 mT using a permanent magnet Halbach array

Purpose: To design a low-cost, portable permanent magnet-based MRI system capable of obtaining in vivo MR images within a reasonable scan time. Methods: A discretized Halbach permanent magnet array with a clear bore diameter of 27 cm was designed for operation at 50 mT. Custom-built gradient coils, RF coil, gradient amplifiers, and RF...

Gradient Coil Design and Realization for a Halbach-Based MRI System

In this article, we design and construct gradient coils for a Halbach permanent-magnet array magnetic resonance (MR) scanner. The target field method, which is widely applied for the case of axial static magnetic fields, has been developed for a transverse static magnetic field as produced by a Halbach permanent-magnet array. Using this...

High-permittivity pad design tool for 7T neuroimaging and 3T body imaging

Purpose: High-permittivity materials in the form of flexible “dielectric pads” have proved very useful for addressing RF inhomogeneities in high field MRI systems. Finding the optimal design of such pads is, however, a tedious task, reducing the impact of this technique. We present an easy-to-use software tool which allows researchers and...

Accelerating compressed sensing in parallel imaging reconstructions using an efficient circulant preconditioner for cartesian trajectories

Purpose: Design of a preconditioner for fast and efficient parallel imaging (PI) and compressed sensing (CS) reconstructions for Cartesian trajectories. Theory: PI and CS reconstructions become time consuming when the problem size or the number of coils is large, due to the large linear system of equations that has to be solved in l<sub>1<...

Developments in electrical-property tomography based on the contrast-source inversion method

The main objective of electrical-property tomography (EPT) is to retrieve dielectric tissue parameters from B ₁ ⁺ data as measured by a magnetic-resonance (MR) scanner. This is a so-called hybrid inverse problem in which data are defined inside the reconstruction domain of interest. In this paper, we discuss recent and...

A simulation study on the effect of optimized high permittivity materials on fetal imaging at 3T

PURPOSE: One of the main concerns in fetal MRI is the radiofrequency power that is absorbed both by the mother and the fetus. Passive shimming using high permittivity materials in the form of "dielectric pads" has previously been shown to increase the formula presented efficiency and homogeneity in different applications, while reducing the...

High-Permittivity Pad Design for Dielectric Shimming in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Using Projection-Based Model Reduction and a Nonlinear Optimization Scheme

Inhomogeneities in the transmit radio frequency magnetic field ( {\text{B}}-{1}^{+} ) reduce the quality of magnetic resonance (MR) images. This quality can be improved by using high-permittivity pads that tailor the {\text{B}}-{1}^{+} fields. The design of an optimal pad is application-specific and not straightforward and would therefore...

3-D Contrast Source Inversion-Electrical Properties Tomography

Contrast source inversion &amp;#x2013; electrical properties tomography (CSI-EPT) is an iterative reconstruction method to retrieve the electrical properties (EPs) of tissues from MR data. The method is based on integral representations of the electromagnetic (EM) field and has been shown to allow EP reconstructions of small structures as...