Patents by Inventor Yoshikazu Ikezaki

Yoshikazu Ikezaki 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: 20040039276
    Abstract: For the purpose of enabling parallel imaging even when a navigator echo is used to phase-correct an imaging echo, the present invention involves: exciting spins within a subject to acquire an imaging echo generated by the excited spins along with a navigator echo, with a reduced field-of-view via a plurality of receiver systems (802); conducting phase correction on the imaging echo based on the navigator echo (804); producing an intermediate image based on the phase-corrected imaging echo from each of the plurality of receiver systems (806); generating a sensitivity matrix for the plurality of receiver systems (808); correcting the phase of matrix data in the sensitivity matrix (810); and producing an image with a full field-of-view based on the intermediate image and the phase-corrected sensitivity matrix (812).
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 18, 2003
    Publication date: February 26, 2004
    Inventor: Yoshikazu Ikezaki
  • Publication number: 20030228043
    Abstract: For a purpose of improving homogeneity of an image obtained in a self-calibration by a parallel imaging method generally referred to as SENSE (SENSitivity Encoding), sensitivity factors Sn(p) are calculated using an additive image Ab=&Sgr;|Cn| of complex images Cn obtained by conducting a calibration scan of an entire FOV for phased array coils Coil_n (n=1−N, N≧2) (Steps V2, V3). Moreover, sensitivity maps Sn are generated by conducting curve fitting by the method of least squares weighted by the square of a pixel value Ab(P) of the absolute value additive image Ab (Step V4).
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2003
    Publication date: December 11, 2003
    Applicant: GE Yokogawa Medical Systems, Limited
    Inventor: Yoshikazu Ikezaki
  • Publication number: 20030083571
    Abstract: The present invention is intended to detect a 0-order phase that correctly represents the 0-order phase of an MR signal. The phase of a composite vector calculated using the complex vectors at all sampling points that result from Fourier transform of an MR signal is adopted as a 0-order phase.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 24, 2002
    Publication date: May 1, 2003
    Inventor: Yoshikazu Ikezaki
  • Patent number: 6512372
    Abstract: In order to reduce ghost artifacts due to a Maxwell term phase error caused by a data acquisition read gradient, an n-th Maxwell term collection pulse MTCPn is appended before an inversion RF pulse RF180 for an n-th shot in an I-echo N-shot EPI pulse sequence. The n-th Maxwell term collection pulse MTCPn has a waveform whose time integral value is zero, and gives a bias phase error such that a Maxwell term phase error which is caused by a data acquisition read gradient and contained in data filling out a k-space smoothly varies from a 1st row to an N·I-th row in the direction of a phase encoding axis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 16, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2003
    Assignee: GE Yokogawa Medical Systems, Limited
    Inventor: Yoshikazu Ikezaki
  • Patent number: 6489764
    Abstract: To preventing a deterioration in NMR signals due to a slice-leaned state, in executing a pulse sequence by the spin echo method, the inclination angle G2 of the slice gradient at the time of applying a 180° RF pulse P is made smaller than the inclination angle G1 of the slice gradient at the time of applying a 90° RF pulse R.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2001
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2002
    Assignee: GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC
    Inventors: Aki Yamazaki, Yoshikazu Ikezaki
  • Publication number: 20020167319
    Abstract: To correct motion and magnetic field inhomogeneity phase errors, inverting data collecting read gradients Nr1 and Nr2 are applied to collect correcting data H (n, 1) and H (n, 2) corresponding to focused navigation echoes Ne1 and Ne2, data collecting read gradients r1, . . . , rM which are inverted alternately are applied, and phase encode gradients pdn, p2, . . . , pM are applied at inverting, thereby collecting imaging data F (n, 1), . . . , F (n, M) corresponding to the focused imaging echoes e1, . . . , eM. This sequence is repeated for n=1, . . . , N while changing the magnitude of the phase encode gradient pdn, whereby data F (1, 1) to F (N, M) for filling a k space are collected. Based on the correcting data H (n, 1) and H (n, 2), the imaging data F (n, 1), . . . , F (n, M) are phase corrected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 4, 2002
    Publication date: November 14, 2002
    Inventor: Yoshikazu Ikezaki
  • Publication number: 20010021795
    Abstract: To preventing a deterioration in NMR signals due to a slice-leaned state, in executing a pulse sequence by the spin echo method, the inclination angle G2 of the slice gradient at the time of applying a 180° RF pulse P is made smaller than the inclination angle G1 of the slice gradient at the time of applying a 90° RF pulse R.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 8, 2001
    Publication date: September 13, 2001
    Inventors: Aki Yamazaki, Yoshikazu Ikezaki
  • Patent number: 5732701
    Abstract: A data collection method for MR angiography, wherein the scans resulting in spin warp values are assigned into groups of two or more consecutive acquisitions and each group is averaged two or more times for each heart beat period, whereby data collection time is reduced concurrently with suppression of motion artifacts, all without use of additional hardware.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 2, 1996
    Date of Patent: March 31, 1998
    Assignee: GE Yokogawa Medical Systems, Limited
    Inventors: Eiji Yoshitome, Yoshikazu Ikezaki