Caroline D. Jordan1,2, Bruce L. Daniel1, Kevin M. Koch3, Huanzhou Yu4, Steven Conolly5, Brian A. Hargreaves1
1Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; 2Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; 3Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Waukesha, WI, USA; 4Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Menlo Park, CA, USA; 5Bioengineering, U. C. Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
MRI is an important tool for diagnosing and staging breast cancer. The shape of the breast may result in susceptibility-induced field changes, which can cause poor fat-saturation artifacts near air-tissue boundaries. We developed an empirical model that predicts spatial variations in the magnetic field in the breast based on the shape of the breast. Results indicate that the simulated field map closely models the inhomogeneities of the actual field map. This simulation may provide a model for improved shimming or estimates for unwrapping frequency shifts in phase-based fat-water separation techniques. It also may contribute to understanding what fraction of the field error is due to the lungs versus the outside air.
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