METHOD OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL NMR IMAGING USING SELECTIVE EXCITATION Inventors :

References Cited U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Lawrence D. Cutter; James C. Davis, Jr.; Marvin Snyder [57] ABSTRACT Selective excitation is used to de?ne a thick planar slab of excited nuclear spins in a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging sample. The thick slab is selected such that the excited spins are contained well within the optimum sensitive region de?ned by the radio fre quency (RF) transmitter and receiver coils. Three-di mensional spatial information of an NMR imaging pa rameter, such as nuclear spin density or nuclear spin relaxation time, is collected simultaneously from the excited slab and can be used to construct a series of several tomographic section images of the slab. The spatial information is encoded in the NMR signal by application of pulsed gradient magnetic ?elds subse quent to excitation. Image picture information is ob tained from the NMR signals via three-dimensional 4,284,948 8/1981 Young ............. .. 324/309 4,315,216 2/1922 Clow ............... .. .. 324/309 Fmmer transformanon'