Patents by Inventor Jochen Leupold

Jochen Leupold 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).

  • Patent number: 8558545
    Abstract: A method for operating a nuclear magnetic resonance imaging device, wherein a continuous sequence of radio-frequency (=RF) pulses are radiated onto a sample, ? being the constant phase value for all magnetization vectors, and all magnetization vectors undergo a phase progression Fn=n? during the n-th sequence interval, wherein P is the number of RF pulses after which the phase angle of the magnetization vectors is repeated, wherein the total gradient moment in one or more directions in space having a value greater than 0, and consecutive pulses exhibit a constant repetition time TR, wherein, after radiation of one RF pulse, one k-space row is acquired. The method is characterized in that any one- or multi-dimensional arrangement of k-space rows is repeated identically N times, and signals from identical k-space rows are averaged or added. The method increases the efficiency of the gradient spoiling and thus the efficiency of artifact suppression.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2013
    Assignee: Universitaetsklinikum Freiburg
    Inventor: Jochen Leupold
  • Patent number: 8395385
    Abstract: A method for RARE magnetic resonance imaging comprising slice selective excitation of two or more slices and of one or more nuclei, followed by refocusing of these slices and application of gradient pulses which cause a division of the signal into spin echoes and stimulated echoes, is characterized by application of refocusing slice selective RF pulses, which are placed to fulfill the echo-spacing CPMG condition for each slice and by arrangement of gradient pulses which cause the phase accumulated by spins in each slice between two consecutive refocusing RF pulses corresponding to that slice to be equal, thus fulfilling the CPMG phase accumulation condition. Thereby, the obtainable signal can be increased and stabilized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2013
    Assignee: Universitaetsklinikum Freiburg
    Inventors: Kuan Jin Lee, Jochen Leupold
  • Publication number: 20120074937
    Abstract: A method for operating a nuclear magnetic resonance imaging device, wherein a continuous sequence of radio-frequency (=RF) pulses are radiated onto a sample, ? being the constant phase value for all magnetization vectors, and all magnetization vectors undergo a phase progression Fn=n? during the n-th sequence interval, wherein P is the number of RF pulses after which the phase angle of the magnetization vectors is repeated, wherein the total gradient moment in one or more directions in space having a value greater than 0, and consecutive pulses exhibit a constant repetition time TR, wherein, after radiation of one RF pulse, one k-space row is acquired. The method is characterized in that any one- or multi-dimensional arrangement of k-space rows is repeated identically N times, and signals from identical k-space rows are averaged or added. The method increases the efficiency of the gradient spoiling and thus the efficiency of artifact suppression.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 3, 2011
    Publication date: March 29, 2012
    Applicant: Universitaetsklinikum Freiburg
    Inventor: Jochen Leupold
  • Publication number: 20100259260
    Abstract: A method for RARE magnetic resonance imaging comprising slice selective excitation of two or more slices and of one or more nuclei, followed by refocusing of these slices and application of gradient pulses which cause a diversion of the signal into spin echoes and stimulated echoes, is characterized by application of refocusing slice selective RF pulses, which are placed to fulfill the echo-spacing CPMG condition for each slice and by arrangement of gradient pulses which cause the phase accumulated by spins in each slice between two consecutive refocusing RF pulses corresponding to that slice to be equal, thus fulfilling the CPMG phase accumulation condition. Thereby, the obtainable signal can be increased and stabilized.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 1, 2010
    Publication date: October 14, 2010
    Applicant: Universitaetsklinikum Freiburg
    Inventors: Kuan Jin Lee, Jochen Leupold
  • Patent number: 7372266
    Abstract: A method according to the technique of a steady state free precession (SSFP) gradient echo method, in particular, of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) tomography, wherein a regular sequence of radio frequency pulses with flip angle ? is applied at temporally constant intervals TR, wherein the phase of these pulses is increased in subsequent steps by a constant phase increment, is characterized in that a predetermined phase encoding scheme is performed in such a manner that each individual phase encoding step is identically repeated N times under the following conditions: N is an even number and N?2; successive measured NMR signals are averaged, which minimizes the artefacts produced due to incrementation of the phase encoding gradients.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2008
    Assignee: Universitätsklinikum Freiburg
    Inventors: Michael Markl, Jochen Leupold
  • Publication number: 20060125476
    Abstract: A method according to the technique of a steady state free precession (SSFP) gradient echo method, in particular, of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) tomography, wherein a regular sequence of radio frequency pulses with flip angle ? is applied at temporally constant intervals TR, wherein the phase of these pulses is increased in subsequent steps by a constant phase increment, is characterized in that a predetermined phase encoding scheme is performed in such a manner that each individual phase encoding step is identically repeated N times under the following conditions: N is an even number and N?2; successive measured NMR signals are averaged, which minimizes the artefacts produced due to incrementation of the phase encoding gradients.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2005
    Publication date: June 15, 2006
    Inventors: Michael Markl, Jochen Leupold