Clinical trial of MRI clinical evaluation of hybrid image

In our evaluation we utilized the Asahi Mark-J MRI system, with a resistive vertical quadrupolar electromagnet (0.1 Tesla) and a proton resonance frequency of 4.5 MHz. Our main imaging methods are the inversion-recovery of IR, saturation-recovery, or SR, and calculated T1. Difference, or D images, constructed by subtracting the data of the IR signal from that of the SR signal, have also been obtained in some cases. The system allows averaging of raw data. Hybrid images were constructed from two or more images to obtain clear definition of areas of interest. By using the hybrid image, several tissues of different relaxation times can be shown in the same image. Application in our study of the newly developed hybrid image indicates its importance in the detection and diagnosis of lesion, especially the detection of the differentiation of an edematous lesion from a tumor, and also abnormal fluid collection such as the pleural effusion or ascites. We hope that these example make clear the great potential of hybrid images in the determination of the size, location and the grade of abnormal lesions due to the nice contrast between normal and abnormal tissue. (author)