Multipoint K-space point mapping (KPM) technique for NMR microscopy.

Abstract

An extended version of point mapping in k-space for microscopic imaging applications is analyzed and described. Because the method can offer a number of advantages over the other conventional techniques due to the short echo time (TE), the technique is ideally suited for microscopic imaging where field inhomogeneity dependent signal degradation is one of the main causes of image resolution degradation (1-3). Another application area is the case of imaging in a highly inhomogeneous situation such as the fringe field imaging (Z.H. Cho, E. Wong, U.S. Patent #5023554 (1990). The first original point mapping technique described by Nauert et al. (1) and Emid and Creyghton (2) is analyzed as a k-space point mapping technique, and the original technique is extended to a multipoint k-space point mapping (MKPM) technique. With the extended MKPM technique, much faster microscopic imaging that is free of susceptibility and diffusion effects can be performed (4-6). To examine this idea, computer simulations are performed and their results are given.