Patents by Inventor Jean Brittain

Jean Brittain has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20080012567
    Abstract: A method for generating dynamic magnetic resonance images is provided. A cyclical magnetic resonance imaging excitation is applied for a plurality of cycles at a cycle rate. A plurality of magnetic resonance image echoes is acquired for each cycle. A plurality of frames of images is generated from the acquired plurality of magnetic resonance echoes at a frame rate that is at least twice the cycle rate, wherein each frame of the plurality of frames is generated from a plurality of echoes and wherein some of the plurality of frames are generated from magnetic resonance image echoes of adjacent cycles.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 20, 2007
    Publication date: January 17, 2008
    Inventors: Huanzhou Yu, Charles McKenzie, Jean Brittain, Norbert Pelc, Scott Reeder
  • Publication number: 20080012565
    Abstract: A method for generating a self-calibrating parallel multiecho magnetic resonance image is provided. A magnetic resonance imaging excitation is applied. A first echo at a first echo time in a first pattern is acquired. A second echo at a second echo time different from the first echo phase in a second pattern different from the first pattern is acquired. The acquired first echo and acquired second echo are used to generate an image in an image pattern, wherein none of the acquired echoes for generating the image have the same pattern as the image pattern.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 20, 2007
    Publication date: January 17, 2008
    Inventors: Charles McKenzie, Anja Brau, Huanzhou Yu, Scott Reeder, Jean Brittain, Ann Shimakawa
  • Publication number: 20070285094
    Abstract: A method for generating a magnetic resonance images is provided. A first species signal for a first species is generated from magnetic resonance data. A second signal is generated from the magnetic resonance data. The first species signal is combined with the second signal to provide a recombined image. The recombined image may be displayed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 20, 2007
    Publication date: December 13, 2007
    Inventors: Scott Reeder, Charles McKenzie, Jean Brittain
  • Publication number: 20070279056
    Abstract: The present invention is directed to slice selective magnetization preparation for moving table MRI. The present invention includes a method of magnetization preparation that takes into account patient movement or translation during the imaging process. The present invention adjusts or modifies the frequency at which magnetization preparation pulses are applied to offset the preparation pulse in space. This allows preparation pulses to be interleaved with imaging and enables magnetization preparation without sacrificing other imaging variables or parameters defined for the particular MR study. As such, contrast within a reconstructed image is improved.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 30, 2007
    Publication date: December 6, 2007
    Inventors: Ajit Shankaranarayanan, Jean Brittain
  • Publication number: 20060250132
    Abstract: Homodyne image reconstruction is combined with an iterative decomposition of water and fat from MR signals obtained from a partial k-space signal acquisition in order to maximize the resolution of calculated water and fat images. The method includes asymmetrical acquisition of under-sampled MRI data, obtaining low resolution images, and then estimating a magnetic field map and phase maps of water and fat image signals from the low resolution images. The acquired data is again filtered and Fourier transformed to obtain an estimate of combined fat and water signals using the estimated magnetic field map and phase maps. Water and fat images are then estimated from which phases of the water and fat images are determined. The real parts of the water and fat images are then used in calculating water and fat images using a homodyne process.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 18, 2005
    Publication date: November 9, 2006
    Inventors: Scott Reeder, Brian Hargreaves, Jean Brittain
  • Publication number: 20060100499
    Abstract: A system and method for MR imaging is disclosed that includes displaying a series of MR images of an ROI in real-time and localizing a slice within the ROI. The method also includes using a parallel imaging technique to acquire gated MR data from the localized slice and reconstructing a prescribed fixed number of gated MR images of the localized slice.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 2, 2004
    Publication date: May 11, 2006
    Inventors: Ajit Shankaranarayanan, Andres Carrillo, Steven Wolff, Jean Brittain
  • Publication number: 20060043970
    Abstract: The present invention is directed to a method and system of tissue or background suppression for the acquisition of image data from blood flow or tissue perfusion. Background suppression with minimal effects upon inflowing spins is achieved through a series of spin locking low level RF pulses that cause adiabatic demagnetization of tissue with a relaxation time T1-rho that is intermediate between T1 and T2 relaxation times. In this regard, the effective transverse magnetization of static tissue resulting from the application of a series of low level RF pulses is reduced and, with the spin locking, longitudinal magnetization regrowth is minimized. As such, inflowing spins to an imaging volume may be directly imaged with significant background tissue suppression. The present invention is particularly applicable to time-of-flight MRA and MR perfusion imaging.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 30, 2004
    Publication date: March 2, 2006
    Inventors: Gregory Zaharchuk, Jean Brittain
  • Publication number: 20050020907
    Abstract: The present invention is directed to slice selective magnetization preparation for moving table MRI. The present invention includes a method of magnetization preparation that takes into account patient movement or translation during the imaging process. The present invention adjusts or modifies the frequency at which magnetization preparation pulses are applied to offset the preparation pulse in space. This allows preparation pulses to be interleaved with imaging and enables magnetization preparation without sacrificing other imaging variables or parameters defined for the particular MR study. As such, contrast within a reconstructed image is improved.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 8, 2003
    Publication date: January 27, 2005
    Inventors: Ajit Shankaranarayanan, Jean Brittain
  • Publication number: 20050004448
    Abstract: A method for a medical examination is described. The method includes polar phase encoding to generate a plurality of signals forming datasets representative of an object, where the datasets form a grid in polar coordinates in a k-space.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 2, 2003
    Publication date: January 6, 2005
    Inventors: David Gurr, Jean Brittain, Graham Wright