Abstract: A magnetic resonance method comprising: loading a subject into a magnetic resonance scanner; with the subject loaded into the magnetic resonance scanner, acquiring B1 maps (72) for a plurality of radio frequency transmit channels of the magnetic resonance scanner; shimming the plurality of radio frequency transmit channels and setting a radio frequency transmit power for the shimmed plurality of radio frequency transmit channels using the acquired B 1 maps to generate optimized amplitude and phase parameters (98) for the plurality of radio frequency transmit channels; acquiring magnetic resonance imaging data of the subject loaded into the magnetic resonance scanner including exciting magnetic resonance by operating the plurality of radio frequency transmit channels using the optimized amplitude and phase parameters; generating a reconstructed image from the acquired magnetic resonance imaging data; and displaying the reconstructed image.

Abstract: An imaging method for imaging a subject (18) including fibrous/anisotropic structures (102) includes acquiring three-dimensional image representations without and with a plurality of different diffusion weighting and directions. When a user (56) hovers a selection device over a voxel of the image, a fiber representation (54) is extracted in substantially real time. The representation is generated by following a direction of a major eigenvector e1 from voxel to voxel. A human-viewable display of the fiber representation is produced (210).

Abstract: An imaging method (150, 190) for imaging a subject (16) including fibrous or anisotropic structures (102) includes acquiring a three-dimensional apparent diffusion tensor map (162) of a region with some anisotropic structures (102). The apparent diffusion tensor at a voxel is processed (164) to obtain eigenvectors (e1, e2, e3) and eigenvalues (&lgr;1, &lgr;2, &lgr;3). A three-dimensional fiber representation (208) is extracted (198, 200) using the eigenvectors and eigenvalues. During the extracting (198, 200), voxels are locally interpolated (202) in at least a selected dimension in a vicinity of the fiber representation (208). The interpolating includes weighting the voxels by a parameter indicative of a local anisotropy. The interpolating results in a three-dimensional fiber representation (208) having a higher tracking accuracy and representation resolution than the acquired tensor map (162).

Abstract: An imaging method for imaging a subject (18) including fibrous/anisotropic structures (102) includes acquiring three-dimensional image representations without and with a plurality of different diffusion weightings and directions. When a user (56) hovers a selection device over a voxel of the image, a fiber representation (54) is extracted in substantially real time. The representation is generated by following a direction of a major eigenvector e1 from voxel to voxel. A human-viewable display of the fiber representation is produced (210).

Abstract: An imaging method (150, 190) for imaging a subject (16) including fibrous or anisotropic structures (102) includes acquiring a three-dimensional apparent diffusion tensor map (162) of a region with some anisotropic structures (102). The apparent diffusion tensor at a voxel is processed (164) to obtain eigenvectors (e1, e2, e3) and eigenvalues (&lgr;1, &lgr;2, &lgr;3). A three-dimensional fiber representation (208) is extracted (198, 200) using the eigenvectors and eigenvalues. During the extracting (198, 200), voxels are locally interpolated (202) in at least a selected dimension in a vicinity of the fiber representation (208). The interpolating includes weighting the voxels by a parameter indicative of a local anisotropy. The interpolating results in a three-dimensional fiber representation (208) having a higher tracking accuracy and representation resolution than the acquired tensor map (162).

Abstract: An imaging method for imaging a subject (16) including anisotropic or fibrous structures (102) includes acquiring a three-dimensional apparent diffusion tensor map (44, 162) of a region with some anisotropic structures (102). The apparent diffusion tensor map (44, 162) is processed to obtain ordered eigenvectors and eigenvalues (48, 166) of diffusion tensor map voxels. A three-dimensional fiber representation (54, 208) is tracked using the eigenvectors and eigenvalues (48, 166). The three-dimensional fiber representation (54, 208) is rendered as a hyperstreamline representation (238). An background image representation (328) is generated. A human-viewable display (344) is produced including the rendered hyperstreamline representation (238) superimposed on the generated image background representation (328).