Full FOV Research Articles

Investigation of 3D reduced field of view carotid atherosclerotic plaque imaging

To investigate the feasibility of using CUBE based reduced field of view imaging in atherosclerotic plaque imaging. Twenty-four patients were enrolled in this prospective study (13 males, 11 females, age 63±10). All patients underwent MRI exams consisting of 3D TOF, MPRAGE, iMSDE, DANTE, full FOV and reduced FOV CUBE imaging; 18 patients under went contrast enhanced imaging. The resulting images from different imaging sequences were assessed in terms of blood suppression, SNR, motion artifacts and vascular clarity. Reduced field of view CUBE outperformed MPRAGE, iMSDE and full FOV CUBE in blood suppression (P<0.05); outperformed MPRAGE, iMSDE and DANTE in SNR(P<005); outperformed MPRAGE and iMSDE in motion artifacts (P<005); outperformed MPRAGE and iMSDE in vascular clarity (P<0.05). The identifications of hemorrhage and calcification components were consistent between full FOV CUBE and reduced FOV CUBE (P<0.05). Overall, CUBE combined with reduced field of view imaging would be a promising method in atherosclerotic plaque imaging.

IMPROVEMENT OF SUN ANGLE ACCURACY FROM IN-ORBIT DATA OF A QUADRANT PHOTODIODE SUN SENSOR

The sun vector is commonly used for defining a satellite attitude and many types of sensors exist for its determination. A fine pinhole sun sensor type was chosen and designed for HORYU-IV nanosatellite of Kyushu Institute of Technology. This sensor has a round-shaped hole and uses commercial off-the-shelf silicon photodiode, which consists of four small sensitive elements arranged close to each other. This type of sensors commonly uses look-up tables for providing high accuracy, which requires a large amount of data to be saved. Polynomial methods for sun vector determination were considered instead of look-up tables to avoid having a large amount of data to be saved. The influence of dead spaces between photodiodes on sensor accuracy was also investigated. The sensor was tested in space environment. It was found that its output signals went to saturation point. A method for the compensation of signals truncated by saturation was proposed. It was found that: 1) polynomial method provided 0.1deg accuracy for a sensor with ±5deg field of view; 2) accounting for gaps between photodiodes decreases the average error of the angle determined by 15%; 3) a method for compensation of truncated signals saves full sensor FOV with decreasing accuracy till 0.11deg.

MRI image enhancement using Biot--Savart law at 3 tesla

Coil sensitivity is considered as the most valuable data in the parallel reconstruction of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In this study, a novel coil sensitivity map extraction method is introduced for spatially fixed phased array coils. The proposed technique uses the Biot--Savart law with coil internal shape information and low-resolution phase image data to form sensitivity maps. The performance of this method is tested in a parallel image reconstruction task, using the sensitivity-encoding (SENSE) technique. Under the quasi-static assumption and using the duality principle, we computed the sensitivity maps of a phased-array head coil and reconstructed full FOV images. The experiments show that the resulting image quality is higher in terms of sharpness, artifact level, homogeneity, etc. than existing methods that use sensitivity maps calculated only from low-resolution image data. Moreover, several simulations were conducted using an electromagnetic simulation software tool to theoretically prove the success of the proposed technique. Our simulation results indicate that the success of the method depends heavily on the size of the coil elements. A new method for calculation of sensitivity maps is briefly introduced, which increases image quality and homogeneity while reducing the artifacts.

Feasibility study of reduced field of view diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in head and neck tumors.

Background Reduced field of view (rFOV) imaging may be used to improve the quality of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in the head and neck (HN) region. Purpose To evaluate the feasibility of rFOV-DWI in patients affected by HN tumors, through a comparison with conventional full FOV (fFOV) DWI. Material and Methods Twenty-two patients with histologically-proven malignant or benign tumors of the head and neck were included in a retrospective study. All patients underwent pre-treatment magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies including rFOV-DWI and fFOV-DWI. The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value distributions inside tumor and muscle were derived and the mean, standard deviation (SD), and kurtosis were calculated. Image distortion was quantitatively and qualitatively evaluated, as well as the capability of lesion identification. The Wilcoxon test was used to compare all variables. Agreements between the ADC estimations were assessed by Bland-Altman plots. Results Image distortion and lesion identification scores were both higher for rFOV-DWI compared to fFOV-DWI. A reduction in ADC values with rFOV-DWI emerged for both lesion and muscle, with a mean percentage difference in ADC of 6.2% in the lesions and 24.9% in the muscle. The difference in SD of ADC was statistically significant in the lesions, indicating a higher ADC homogeneity for rFOV DWI ( P = 0.005). Conclusion The application of rFOV DWI in patients affected by HN tumors is feasible and promising, based on both qualitative and quantitative analyses. This technique has potential for improving the diagnostic accuracy of fFOV-DWI for the study of specific tumoral areas.

Transmit Array Spatial Encoding (TRASE) using broadband WURST pulses for RF spatial encoding in inhomogeneous B0 fields

Transmit Array Spatial Encoding (TRASE) is a promising new MR encoding method that uses transmit RF (B1+) phase gradients over the field-of-view to perform Fourier spatial encoding. Acquisitions use a spin echo train in which the transmit coil phase ramp is modulated to jump from one k-space point to the next. This work extends the capability of TRASE by using swept radiofrequency (RF) pulses and a quadratic phase removal method to enable TRASE where it is arguably most needed: portable imaging systems with inhomogeneous B0 fields. The approach is particularly well-suited for portable MR scanners where (a) inhomogeneous B0 fields are a byproduct of lightweight magnet design, (b) heavy, high power-consumption gradient coil systems are a limitation to siting the system in non-conventional locations and (c) synergy with the use of spin echo trains is required to overcome intra-voxel dephasing (short T2∗) in the inhomogeneous field. TRASE does not use a modulation of the B0 field to encode, but it does suffer from secondary effects of the inhomogeneous field. Severe artifacts arise in TRASE images due to off-resonance effects when the RF pulse does not cover the full bandwidth of spin resonances in the imaging FOV. Thus, for highly inhomogeneous B0 fields, the peak RF power needed for high-bandwidth refocusing hard pulses becomes very expensive, in addition to requiring RF coils that can withstand thousands of volts. In this work, we use swept WURST RF pulse echo trains to achieve TRASE imaging in a highly inhomogeneous magnetic field (ΔB0/B0∼0.33% over the sample). By accurately exciting and refocusing the full bandwidth of spins, the WURST pulses eliminate artifacts caused by the limited bandwidth of the hard pulses used in previous realizations of TRASE imaging. We introduce a correction scheme to remove the unwanted quadratic phase modulation caused by the swept pulses. Also, a phase alternation scheme is employed to mitigate artifacts caused by mixture of the even and odd-echo coherence pathways due to defects in the refocusing pulse. In this paper, we describe this needed methodology and demonstrate the ability of TRASE to Fourier encode in an inhomogeneous field (ΔB0/B0∼1% over the full FOV).

Scatter estimation and removal of anti-scatter grid-line artifacts from anthropomorphic head phantom images taken with a high resolution image detector.

In radiography, one of the best methods to eliminate image-degrading scatter radiation is the use of anti-scatter grids. However, with high-resolution dynamic imaging detectors, stationary anti-scatter grids can leave grid-line shadows and moiré patterns on the image, depending upon the line density of the grid and the sampling frequency of the x-ray detector. Such artifacts degrade the image quality and may mask small but important details such as small vessels and interventional device features. Appearance of these artifacts becomes increasingly severe as the detector spatial resolution is improved. We have previously demonstrated that, to remove these artifacts by dividing out a reference grid image, one must first subtract the residual scatter that penetrates the grid; however, for objects with anatomic structure, scatter varies throughout the FOV and a spatially differing amount of scatter must be subtracted. In this study, a standard stationary Smit-Rontgen X-ray grid (line density - 70 lines/cm, grid ratio - 13:1) was used with a high-resolution CMOS detector, the Dexela 1207 (pixel size - 75 micron) to image anthropomorphic head phantoms. For a 15 × 15cm FOV, scatter profiles of the anthropomorphic head phantoms were estimated then iteratively modified to minimize the structured noise due to the varying grid-line artifacts across the FOV. Images of the anthropomorphic head phantoms taken with the grid, before and after the corrections, were compared demonstrating almost total elimination of the artifact over the full FOV. Hence, with proper computational tools, anti-scatter grid artifacts can be corrected, even during dynamic sequences.

An iterative reduced field-of-view reconstruction for periodically rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction (PROPELLER) MRI.

To propose a new reduced field-of-view (rFOV) strategy for iterative reconstructions in a clinical environment. Iterative reconstructions can incorporate regularization terms to improve the image quality of periodically rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction (PROPELLER) MRI. However, the large amount of calculations required for full FOV iterative reconstructions has posed a huge computational challenge for clinical usage. By subdividing the entire problem into smaller rFOVs, the iterative reconstruction can be accelerated on a desktop with a single graphic processing unit (GPU). This rFOV strategy divides the iterative reconstruction into blocks, based on the block-diagonal dominant structure. A near real-time reconstruction system was developed for the clinical MR unit, and parallel computing was implemented using the object-oriented model. In addition, the Toeplitz method was implemented on the GPU to reduce the time required for full interpolation. Using the data acquired from the PROPELLER MRI, the reconstructed images were then saved in the digital imaging and communications in medicine format. The proposed rFOV reconstruction reduced the gridding time by 97%, as the total iteration time was 3 s even with multiple processes running. A phantom study showed that the structure similarity index for rFOV reconstruction was statistically superior to conventional density compensation (p < 0.001). In vivo study validated the increased signal-to-noise ratio, which is over four times higher than with density compensation. Image sharpness index was improved using the regularized reconstruction implemented. The rFOV strategy permits near real-time iterative reconstruction to improve the image quality of PROPELLER images. Substantial improvements in image quality metrics were validated in the experiments. The concept of rFOV reconstruction may potentially be applied to other kinds of iterative reconstructions for shortened reconstruction duration.

SU‐E‐J‐125: Classification of CBCT Noises in Terms of Their Contribution to Proton Range Uncertainty

Purpose:This study assesses the potential use of CBCT images in adaptive protontherapy by estimating the contribution of the main sources of noise and calibration errors to the proton range uncertainty.Methods:Measurements intended to highlight each particular source have been achieved by adapting either the testbench configuration, e.g. use of filtration, fan‐beam collimation, beam stop arrays, phantoms and detector reset light, or the sequence of correction algorithms including water precorrection. Additional Monte‐Carlo simulations have been performed to complement these measurements, especially for the beam hardening and the scatter cases. Simulations of proton beams penetration through the resulting images have then been carried out to quantify the range change due to these effects. The particular case of a brain irradiation is considered mainly because of the multiple effects that the skull bones have on the internal soft tissues.Results:On top of the range error sources is the undercorrection of scatter. Its influence has been analyzed from a comparison of fan‐beam and full axial FOV acquisitions. In this case, large range errors of about 12 mm can be reached if the assumption is made that the scatter has only a constant contribution over the projection images. Even the detector lag, which a priori induces a much smaller effect, has been shown to contribute for up to 2 mm to the overall error if its correction only aims at reducing the skin artefact. This last result can partially be understood by the larger interface between tissues and bones inside the skull.Conclusion:This study has set the basis of a more systematical analysis of the effect CBCT noise on range uncertainties based on a combination of measurements, simulations and theoretical results. With our method, even more subtle effects such as the cone‐beam artifact or the detector lag can be assessed.SBR and JOR are financed by iMagX, a public‐private partnership between the region Wallone of Belgium and IBA under convention #1217662

SU‐E‐I‐73: Clinical Evaluation of CT Image Reconstructed Using Interior Tomography

Purpose:Radiation dose reduction has been a long standing challenge in CT imaging of obese patients. Recent advances in interior tomography (reconstruction of an interior region of interest (ROI) from line integrals associated with only paths through the ROI) promise to achieve significant radiation dose reduction without compromising image quality. This study is to investigate the application of this technique in CT imaging through evaluating imaging quality reconstructed from patient data.Methods:Projection data were directly obtained from patients who had CT examinations in a Dual Source CT scanner (DSCT). Two detectors in a DSCT acquired projection data simultaneously. One detector provided projection data for full field of view (FOV, 50 cm) while another detectors provided truncated projection data for a FOV of 26 cm. Full FOV CT images were reconstructed using both filtered back projection and iterative algorithm; while interior tomography algorithm was implemented to reconstruct ROI images. For comparison reason, FBP was also used to reconstruct ROI images. Reconstructed CT images were evaluated by radiologists and compared with images from CT scanner.Results:The results show that the reconstructed ROI image was in excellent agreement with the truth inside the ROI, obtained from images from CT scanner, and the detailed features in the ROI were quantitatively accurate. Radiologists evaluation shows that CT images reconstructed with interior tomography met diagnosis requirements. Radiation dose may be reduced up to 50% using interior tomography, depending on patient size.Conclusion:This study shows that interior tomography can be readily employed in CT imaging for radiation dose reduction. It may be especially useful in imaging obese patients, whose subcutaneous tissue is less clinically relevant but may significantly increase radiation dose.

High resolution diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging of the pancreas using reduced field of view single-shot echo-planar imaging at 3 T

Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) has been mostly acquired using single-shot echo-planar imaging (ss EPI) to minimize motion induced artifacts. The spatial resolution, however, is inherently limited in ss EPI especially for abdominal imaging, even with the advances in parallel imaging. A novel method of reduced Field of View ss EPI (rFOV ss EPI) has achieved high resolution DWI in human carotid artery, spinal cord with reduced blurring and higher spatial resolution than conventional ss EPI, but it has not been used to pancreas imaging. In the work, comparisons between the full FOV ss-DW EPI and rFOV ss-DW EPI in image qualities and ADC values of pancreatic tumors and normal pancreatic tissues were performed to demonstrate the feasibility of pancreatic high resolution rFOV DWI. There were no significant differences in the mean ADC values between full FOV DWI and rFOV DWI for the 17 subjects using b=600s/mm2 (P=0.962). However, subjective scores of image quality was significantly higher at rFOV ss DWI (P=0.008 and 0.000 for b-value=0s/mm2 and 600s/mm2 respectively). The spatial resolution of DWI for pancreas was increased by a factor of over 2.0 (from almost 3.0mm/pixel to 1.25mm/pixel) using rFOV ss EPI technique. Reduced FOV ss EPI can provide good DW images and is promising to benefit applications for pancreatic diseases.

Wide angle holographic display system with spatiotemporal multiplexing

This paper presents a wide angle holographic display system with extended viewing angle in both horizontal and vertical directions. The display is constructed from six spatial light modulators (SLM) arranged on a circle and an additional SLM used for spatiotemporal multiplexing and a viewing angle extension in two perpendicular directions. The additional SLM, that is synchronized with the SLMs on the circle is placed in the image space. This method increases effective space bandwidth product of display system data from 12.4 to 50 megapixels. The software solution based on three Nvidia graphic cards is developed and implemented in order to achieve fast and synchronized displaying. The experiments presented for both synthetic and real 3D data prove the possibility to view binocularly having good quality images reconstructed in full FoV of the display.

Assessment of reduced field of view in diffusion tensor imaging of the lumbar nerve roots at 3 T

To assess the value of reduced field of view (rFOV) imaging in diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and tractography of the lumbar nerve roots at 3 T from the perspective of future clinical trials. DTI images of the lumbar nerves were obtained in eight healthy volunteers, with and without the rFOV technique. Non-coplanar excitation and refocusing pulses associated with outer volume suppression (OVS) were used to achieve rFOV imaging. Tractography was performed. A visual evaluation of image quality was made by two observers, both senior musculoskeletal radiologists. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) were measured in L5 and S1 roots. rFOV images of the L5 and S1 roots were assessed as being superior to full FOV (fFOV) images. Image quality was rated as good to excellent by both observers. Interobserver agreement was good. No significant difference was found in FA and ADC measurements of the L5 or S1 roots. On the contrary, only poor-quality images could be obtained with fFOV imaging as major artefacts were present. The rFOV approach was essential to achieve high-quality DTI imaging of lumbar nerve roots on 3-T MRI. • Diffusion tensor 3-T MR imaging of lumbar nerve roots creates severe artefacts. • A reduced field of view drastically reduces artefacts, thereby improving image quality. • Good-quality tractography images can even be obtained with rFOV imaging. • rFOV DTI is better than fFOV DTI for clinical studies.

Revolutionary triangle full arch FOV

Revolutionary triangle full arch FOV

Unrequested Findings on Cardiac Computed Tomography: Looking Beyond the Heart

ObjectivesTo determine the prevalence of clinically relevant unrequested extra-cardiac imaging findings on cardiac Computed Tomography (CT) and explanatory factors thereof.MethodsA systematic review of studies drawn from online electronic databases followed by meta-analysis with meta-regression was performed. The prevalence of clinically relevant unrequested findings and potentially explanatory variables were extracted (proportion of smokers, mean age of patients, use of full FOV, proportion of men, years since publication).ResultsNineteen radiological studies comprising 12922 patients met the inclusion criteria. The pooled prevalence of clinically relevant unrequested findings was 13% (95% confidence interval 9–18, range: 3–39%). The large differences in prevalence observed were not explained by the predefined (potentially explanatory) variables.ConclusionsClinically relevant extra-cardiac findings are common in patients undergoing routine cardiac CT, and their prevalence differs substantially between studies. These differences may be due to unreported factors such as different definitions of clinical relevance and differences between populations. We present suggestions for basic reporting which may improve the interpretability and comparability of future research.

Stray-light contamination and spatial deconvolution of slit-spectrograph observations

Stray light caused by scattering on optical surfaces and in the Earth's atmosphere degrades the spatial resolution of observations. We study the contribution of stray light to the two channels of POLIS. We test the performance of different methods of stray-light correction and spatial deconvolution to improve the spatial resolution post-facto. We model the stray light as having two components: a spectrally dispersed component and a component of parasitic light caused by scattering inside the spectrograph. We use several measurements to estimate the two contributions: observations with a (partly) blocked FOV, a convolution of the FTS spectral atlas, imaging in the pupil plane, umbral profiles, and spurious polarization signal in telluric lines. The measurements allow us to estimate the spatial PSF of POLIS and the main spectrograph of the German VTT. We use the PSF for a deconvolution of both spectropolarimetric data and investigate the effect on the spectra. The parasitic contribution can be directly and accurately determined for POLIS, amounting to about 5%. We estimate a lower limit of about 10% across the full FOV for the dispersed stray light. In quiet Sun regions, the stray-light level from the close surroundings (d< 2") of a given spatial point is about 20%. The stray light reduces to below 2% at a distance of 20" from a lit area for both POLIS and the main spectrograph. A two-component model of the stray-light contributions seems to be sufficient for a basic correction of observed spectra. The instrumental PSF obtained can be used to model the off-limb stray light, to determine the stray-light contamination accurately for observation targets with large spatial intensity gradients such as sunspots, and also allows one to improve the spatial resolution of observations post-facto.

A wavelet-based regularized reconstruction algorithm for SENSE parallel MRI with applications to neuroimaging☆

To reduce scanning time and/or improve spatial/temporal resolution in some Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) applications, parallel MRI acquisition techniques with multiple coils acquisition have emerged since the early 1990s as powerful imaging methods that allow a faster acquisition process. In these techniques, the full FOV image has to be reconstructed from the resulting acquired undersampled k-space data. To this end, several reconstruction techniques have been proposed such as the widely-used SENSitivity Encoding (SENSE) method. However, the reconstructed image generally presents artifacts when perturbations occur in both the measured data and the estimated coil sensitivity profiles. In this paper, we aim at achieving accurate image reconstruction under degraded experimental conditions (low magnetic field and high reduction factor), in which neither the SENSE method nor the Tikhonov regularization in the image domain give convincing results. To this end, we present a novel method for SENSE-based reconstruction which proceeds with regularization in the complex wavelet domain by promoting sparsity. The proposed approach relies on a fast algorithm that enables the minimization of regularized non-differentiable criteria including more general penalties than a classical ℓ(1) term. To further enhance the reconstructed image quality, local convex constraints are added to the regularization process. In vivo human brain experiments carried out on Gradient-Echo (GRE) anatomical and Echo Planar Imaging (EPI) functional MRI data at 1.5T indicate that our algorithm provides reconstructed images with reduced artifacts for high reduction factors.

Reduced field-of-view single-shot fast spin echo imaging using two-dimensional spatially selective radiofrequency pulses.

To demonstrate reduced field-of-view (RFOV) single-shot fast spin echo (SS-FSE) imaging based on the use of two-dimensional spatially selective radiofrequency (2DRF) pulses. The 2DRF pulses were incorporated into an SS-FSE sequence for RFOV imaging in both phantoms and the human brain on a 1.5 Tesla (T) whole-body MR system with the aim of demonstrating improvements in terms of shorter scan time, reduced blurring, and higher spatial resolution compared with full FOV imaging. For phantom studies, scan time gains of up to 4.2-fold were achieved as compared to the full FOV imaging. For human studies, the spatial resolution was increased by a factor of 2.5 (from 1.7 mm/pixel to 0.69 mm/pixel) for RFOV imaging within a scan time (0.7 s) similar to full FOV imaging. A 2.2-fold shorter scan time along with a significant reduction of blurring was demonstrated in RFOV images compared with full FOV images for a target spatial resolution of 0.69 mm/pixel. RFOV SS-FSE imaging using a 2DRF pulse shows advantages in scan time, blurring, and specific absorption rate reduction along with true spatial resolution increase compared with full FOV imaging. This approach is promising to benefit fast imaging applications such as image guided therapy.

라인스캔 카메라를 이용한 3차원 정밀 측정

본 논문에서는 라인스캔 카메라를 통해 모든 영역의 영상을 획득하는 연구를 제안한다. 이 방법은 기존의 면적 카메라를 이용했던 방법에 비해 투영격자의 이동 횟수를 획기적으로 줄일 수 있으며, 그로 인해 측정시간이 매우 빠르고 측정정밀도도 뛰어난 장점을 가진다. 본 논문의 스캐닝 모아레 측정 방법은 넓은 영역의 3차원 형상 정보를 얻는데 매우 유익하며, 대면적의 대상물 측정 시 일반적으로 사용하는 stitching 기법을 사용할 필요가 없으므로 한번에 전 영역의 3차원 형상의 복원이 가능하여 보다 빠른 속도로 3차원 형상 정보를 얻을 수 있는 효과가 있다. 또한, 투영격자 하나만을 이용한 영사식 모아레 방식을 이용하여 작은 높이 단차를 갖는 물체의 3차원 형상을 복원하고 그 높이를 용이하게 측정 할 수 있다. 본 연구는 양산환경(Mass production)의 웨이퍼 범프 높이 검사 및 FC-CSP나 FC-BGA 범프 높이 검사 등에 활용 할 수 있으며, 실험을 통해 기존의 방법에 비해 투영격자의 이동횟수 및 측정 속도가 향상되었음을 확인하였다. This paper presents the Projection Moire method using a line scan camera. The high resolution feature of a line scan camera makes it possible to scan an image quickly, thus enabling a much quicker 3D profile. This method uses a high resolution line scan camera making it possible to scan an image at high speed simultaneously measuring the 3D profile of a large FOV. When using a high resolution scan camera, a full FOV is scanned, thus requiring just one movement of a projection grating. As a result, the number of grating movements is reduced drastically. The end result is a faster and more accurate 3D measurement. Moving the grating too quickly causes vibration in the imaging system, which will normally be required to apply a stitching technique when using an area scan camera. However the technique is not required when using a line scan camera. Compared with the previous techniques, it has the advantages of simple hardware without moving mechanical parts - single exposure for obtaining three-dimensional information. A method using a high resolution line scan camera can be used in mass production to measure the bump height of wafers or the bump height of package substrates.

A technique for simulating visual field losses in virtual environments to study human navigation

The following paper describes a new technique for simulating peripheral field losses in virtual environments to study the roles of the central and peripheral visual fields during navigation. Based on Geisler and Perry's (2002) gaze-contingent multiresolution display concept, the technique extends their methodology to work with three-dimensional images that are both transformed and rendered in real time by a computer graphics system. In order to assess the usefulness of this method for studying visual field losses, an experiment was run in which seven participants were required to walk to a target tree in a virtual forest as quickly and efficiently as possible while artificial head and eye-based delays were systematically introduced. Bilinear fits were applied to the mean trial times in order to assess at what delay lengths breaks in performance could be observed. Results suggest that breaks occur beyond the current delays inherent in the system. Increases in trial times across all delays tested were also observed when simulated peripheral field losses were applied compared to full FOV conditions. Possible applications and limitations of the system are discussed. The source code needed to program visual field losses can be found at lions.med.jhu.edu/archive/turanolab/Simulated_Visual_Field_Loss_Code.html.

Partial field‐of‐view spiral phase‐contrast imaging using complex difference processing

Rapid flow imaging was achieved with a partial field of view (pFOV) spiral motion-encoded technique. The FOV and the acquisition time were reduced by a factor of 2 by undersampling k-space. The pFOV spiral k-space trajectory aliased signals from outside a circular ring whose radius was inversely proportional to the distance between adjacent spirals in k-space. In this study the FOV was adjusted so that all of the moving spins were located inside the inner half circle of the full FOV. Complex subtraction of two differentially flow-encoded images was used to remove the spurious phase sources and provide an accurate measurement of flow. The complex subtraction process also serves to eliminate aliasing artifacts that are generated by static tissue from outside the reduced FOV. Experiments in a flow phantom and volunteers showed that the flow estimates obtained by pFOV spiral motion encoding are in good agreement with the estimates reconstructed using complex difference processing.