Sensors 2010, 10(4), 3611-3625; https://doi.org/10.3390/s100403611
Relaxation Time Estimation from Complex Magnetic Resonance Images
Dipartimento per le Tecnologie, Università degli Studi di Napoli Parthenope, Naples, Italy
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Received: 20 December 2009 / Revised: 23 February 2010 / Accepted: 24 March 2010 / Published: 9 April 2010
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Image Sensors 2009)
Abstract
Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging techniques are used to measure biophysical properties of tissues. As clinical diagnoses are mainly based on the evaluation of contrast in MR images, relaxation times assume a fundamental role providing a major source of contrast. Moreover, they can give useful information in cancer diagnostic. In this paper we present a statistical technique to estimate relaxation times exploiting complex-valued MR images. Working in the complex domain instead of the amplitude one allows us to consider the data bivariate Gaussian distributed, and thus to implement a simple Least Square (LS) estimator on the available complex data. The proposed estimator results to be simple, accurate and unbiased. View Full-TextKeywords:
Magnetic Resonance Imaging; relaxation parameter estimation; statistical signal processing
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MDPI and ACS Style
Baselice, F.; Ferraioli, G.; Pascazio, V. Relaxation Time Estimation from Complex Magnetic Resonance Images. Sensors 2010, 10, 3611-3625.