Real-time interactive color flow MRI

Abstract

The imaging method described is a combination of magnetic resonance (MR) velocity measurement, fast scanning, and image reconstruction techniques previously developed. Real-time interactive color flow magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a technique that combines grey-scale automatic MR images with a color overlay which maps blood velocity information. Real-time color flow MRI enables velocity information from vascular structures to be displayed in color simultaneously with the standard grey-scale magnitude image of static structures. The continuous acquisition and reconstruction processes refresh the full display approximately every three seconds and allow the interactive modification of such parameters as field of view, slice orientation and position, and degree of flow encoding. The results of experimental studies indicate that the method is accurate, precise, reproducible, and absolute in the estimation of constant velocities. >