Transceive phase corrected 2D contrast source inversion-electrical properties tomography.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Imaging Physics

Background:

• Electrical properties mapping is crucial for MRI safety and accuracy.
• Current Electrical Property Tomography (EPT) methods often rely on transceive phase assumptions, limiting their applicability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To reformulate the Chemical Shift Imaging-Electrical Property Tomography (CSI-EPT) algorithm to eliminate the transceive phase assumption.
• To demonstrate the reconstruction of electrical properties maps using measured data from a standard 3T MRI system.

Main Methods:

• The CSI-EPT algorithm was reformulated to directly use transceive phase information.
• Numerical implementation of an RF-shield was used for accurate RF field modeling.
• The algorithm was verified using 2D and 3D electromagnetic simulations and tested with phantom MRI experiments at 3T.

Main Results:

• 2D simulations confirmed CSI-EPT's ability to reconstruct electrical properties from MRI-accessible quantities.
• 3D simulations showed slight underestimation but improved standard deviation compared to Helmholtz methods.
• First CSI-EPT reconstructions from measured data demonstrated comparable accuracy and precision to simulated data, proving feasibility.

Conclusions:

• The reformulated CSI-EPT algorithm successfully reconstructs electrical properties maps without transceive phase assumptions.
• This advancement enables leveraging higher magnetic field strengths with standard MRI hardware, enhancing imaging capabilities.