New Patents XXI

5351007

SUPERCONDUCTING MAGNETIC RESONANCE PROBE COIL

Withers Richard; Liang Guo-Chu Sunnyvale, CA, UNITED STATES Assigned to Conductus Inc

A broadband matching network for coupling a magnetic resonance probe to a preamplifier utilizes superconducting matching coils and superconducting locatable shields to detect very weak magnetic signals over a broad bandwidth. The superconducting matching coils and shields minimize signal loss in the matching amplifier. When used with a superconducting magnetic resonance probe, the circuit provides a significant broadening in bandwidth over that of the probe without loss of performance.

5351305

CONCURRENT SMOOTHING AND EDGE EMFANCEMENT OF

MEDICAL DIAGNOSTIC IMAGES

Wood Christopher H; Hajjar Fares; Apicella Anthony; Matthews Kevin Cleveland, OH, UNITED STATES Assigned to Picker International Inc

A magnetic resonance imaging system (A) generates an image (16) of a slice or other region of an examined subject. A smoothing filter (B) smooths the generated image to create a smoothed or filtered image representation (30). The filtering of the image, unfortunately, tends to smooth or blur the edges. An edge detecting means (Cl) views the region around each sampled pixel of the filtered image to determine an amount of deviation in the pixel values. A large deviation indicates an edge; whereas, substantial homogeneity indicates the lack of an edge. Analogously, the direction of the maximum deviation is orthogonal to the direction of the edge. A plurality of soft edge directional filters (54) operate on the filtered image data to create a plurality of soft edge directionally filtered image representations (62). A plurality of hard edge directional filters (56) operate on the filtered image data to create a plurality of hard edge directionally faltered image representations (64).

Preferably, the directional filtering is done at regular angular increments, e.g. every ten degrees. An edge enhanced final image representation (72) is created in which filtered pixels not adjacent an edge are assembled directly from the filtered image (30). Pixels which are adjacent an edge with a smaller (larger) rate of deviation are replaced by the corresponding pixel of the soft (hard) edge filtered image representation that was directionaIly filtered along a direction most nearly parallel to the determined edge direction.

5351688

NMR QUADRATURE DETECTION SOLENOIDAL COILS

Jones Randall Bellevne, NE, UNITED STATES Assigned to Univ of NE Board of Regents

An NMR shoulder coil includes a generally ring- shaped transverse parallel-wound solenoidal coil oriented in a vertical plane. Annular anterior and posterior parallel-wound solenoids are mounted perpendicularly and diametric to the transverse vertical coil. The transverse solenoid is associated with the anterior and posterior solenoids in an electrically quadrature sense, to receive NMR signals associated with their respective axes. The anterior and posterior solenoids are preferably mounted in planes which are approximately 30 degrees from parallel to one another and diverge medially.

5352979

MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING WITH CONTRAST ENHANCED PHASE ANGLE

RECONSTRUCTION

Conturo Thomas E Baltimore, MD, 21231, UNITED STATES

The magnetic resonance image of a specimen is encoded by the phase angle response of the volume elements in a slice or volume illuminated by a pulsed radio frequency source, instead of encoded by the magnitnde response. The