A simple phase error correction technique used for field map estimation with a generally available dual-echo gradient-echo (GRE) sequence is presented. Magnetic field inhomogeneity maps estimated using two separate GRE volume acquisitions at different echo times are prone to dynamic motion errors between acquisitions. By using the dual-echo sequence, the data are collected during two back-to-ba...

For image analysis techniques to be of utility in medical diagnosis systems it is necessary to be able to perform quality control over the results they produce. Input data must conform to the assumptions within the algorithm if useful results are to be achieved. Automation of this process is essential if vision algorithms are to form components in analysis systems. In this paper we present a te...

The 6 MV flattening filter-free (FFF) beam has been commissioned for use with compensators at our institution. This novel combination promises advantages in mitigating tumor motion due to the reduced treatment time made possible by the greatly increased dose rate of the FFF beam. Given the different energy spectrum of the FFF beam and the beam hardening effect of the compensator, the accuracy o...

Background: In treating patients with radiation, the degree of accuracy for the delivery of tumor dose is recommended to be within ± 5% by ICRU in report 24. The experimental studies have shown that the presence of low-density inhomogeneity in areas such as the lung can lead to a greater than 30% change in the water dose data. Therefore, inhomogeneity corrections should be used in treatment pla...

Owing to its intrinsic characteristics, spatiotemporally encoded (SPEN) imaging is less sensitive to adverse effects due to field inhomogeneity in comparison with echo planar imaging, a feature highly desired for functional, diffusion, and real-time MRI. However, the quality of images obtained with SPEN MRI is still degraded by geometric distortions when field inhomogeneity exists. In this stud...

Local deviations of the main field and signal decay due to transverse relaxation lead to perturbations of the Fourier encoding commonly applied in magnetic resonance imaging. Hence, images acquired with trajectories having long readout times suffer from artefacts such as blurring, geometric distortion, and intensity inhomogeneity. These effects can be corrected by means of iterative reconstruct...

Geometric distortion caused by B0 inhomogeneity is one of the most important problems for diffusion-weighted images (DWI) using single-shot, echo planar imaging (SS-EPI). In this study, large-deformation, diffeomorphic metric mapping (LDDMM) algorithm has been tested for the correction of geometric distortion in diffusion tensor images (DTI). Based on data from nine normal subjects, the amount ...

Our application concerns the automated detection of vessels in retinal images to improve understanding of the disease mechanism, diagnosis and treatment of retinal and a number of systemic diseases. We propose a new framework for segmenting retinal vasculatures with much improved accuracy and efficiency. The proposed framework consists of three technical components: Retinex-based image inhomoge...