Magnetic resonance electric property imaging of brain tissues

The electric properties (EPs) of brain tissues, i.e., the electric conductivity and permittivity, can provide important information for diagnosis of various brain disorders. A high-field MRI system is accompanied by significant wave propagation effects, and the radio frequency (RF) radiation is dependent on EPs of the biological tissue. Based on the measurement of the active transverse magnetic component of the applied RF field (known as B1-mapping technique), we have developed a dual-excitation algorithm, which uses two sets of measured B1 data, to noninvasively reconstruct the biological tissue's electric properties. A series of computer simulations were conducted to evaluate the feasibility and performance of the proposed method on a 3-D head model within a birdcage coil and a transverse electromagnetic coil. Compared with other B1-mapping based reconstruction algorithms, our approach provides superior performance without the need for iterative computations. The present simulation results indicate good reconstruction of electric properties of brain tissues from noninvasive MRI B1 mapping.