REMOVAL OF DISTORTION FROM MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGES

WHILE MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGE (MRI) SCANS ARE INVALUABLE BECAUSE OF THEIR HIGH DEGREE OF ANATOMICAL DIFFERENTIATION AND THEIR LACK OF IONIZING RADIATION, THEY CONTAIN AN INHERENT NONLINEAR DISTORTION THAT CAN EXCEED 15 PERCENT. EXISTENCE OF THIS DISTORTION HAS NOT BEEN WELL DOCUMENTED BY MRI DEVICE MANUFACTURERS, AND WITHOUT DISTORTION COMPENSATION, QUANTITATIVE MRI MEASUREMENTS SUCH AS POSITION, LENGTH, AREA, AND VOLUME ARE ERRONEOUS. USING A GENERIC GRAPHICS SOFTWARE SYSTEM, SAM TECHNOLOGY, INC. DEVELOPED, IN CONNECTION WITH BASIC RESEARCH ON FUNCTIONAL NEUROANATOMICAL CORRELATIONS, A PROGRAM FOR MANIPULATING MRI DATA. A FEASIBILITY STUDY TO DETERMINE WHETHER AND HOW PHANTOM CALIBRATION DATA AND DATA FROM A REGISTRATION CAP TO BE WORN BY PATIENTS CAN BE USED TO CORRECT THE DISTORTION IN MRIS WILL BE PERFORMED. IF THE PHASE I EFFORT IS SUCCESSFUL, IN PHASE II THIS SOFTWARE WILLBE GENERALIZED INTO A PORTABLE, LOW-COST SET OF TOOLS THAT RESEARCHERS AND CLINICIANS COULD USE TO CORRECT, ENHANCE, AND QUANTITATIVELY MEASURE THEIR MRI DATA.