Patent application number | Description | Published |
20100221735 | DIAGNOSTIC TEST FOR PARKINSON'S DISEASE - The present invention relates to molecular markers for detection, prognosis and follow up of Parkinson's disease (PD), wherein said molecular markers are one or more genes with altered expression pattern, or gene products thereof (RNA or protein). Genes which expression is upregulated or downregulated in PD patients are tools for early diagnosis od PD, for monitoring the progress of the disease and can serve as targets for screening new agents for treatment of PD. | 09-02-2010 |
20110184375 | MARKER SEQUENCE FOR NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES AND THE USE THEREOF - The present invention relates to new marker sequences for neurodegenerative diseases and the diagnostic use thereof together with a method for screening of potential active substances for neurodegenerative diseases by means of these marker sequences. Furthermore, the invention relates to a diagnostic device containing such marker sequences for neurodegenerative diseases, in particular a protein biochip and the use thereof. | 07-28-2011 |
20130217028 | PERIPHERAL BLOOD GENE MARKERS FOR EARLY DIAGNOSIS OF PARKINSON'S DISEASE - The present invention relates to the use of molecular risk marker profiles for diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. More particularly, the invention provides methods for diagnosis of Parkinson's disease in an individual, utilizing certain profiles established based on the expression levels of certain genes, which together form a gene panel, in the peripheral blood of said individual, as well as kits for carrying out these methods. The profile encompass ALDH1A1. | 08-22-2013 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20120176109 | Voltage Regulator - A voltage regulator circuit for providing a regulated output voltage is provided. The voltage regulator circuit includes an error amplifier configured to provide a control signal based on at least a portion of a fed-back output voltage and a reference voltage. A first output stage is configured to operate at a first supply voltage and provide the regulated output voltage based on the control signal. At least one second output stage configured to operate at a second supply voltage different from the first supply voltage and provide the regulated output voltage based on the control signal. A switch-over unit is configured to switch over the control signal between the first output stage and the second output stage. | 07-12-2012 |
20150097544 | System and Method for Controlling a Power Supply - In accordance with an embodiment, a controller for a switched mode power supply includes an average current comparator that determines whether an average current within the switched mode power supply is below a current threshold, and a switch signal generation circuit coupled to the average current comparator having switch signal outputs configured to be coupled to a switching circuit of the switched mode power supply. The switch signal generation circuit produces a first switching pattern in a first mode of operation and produces a second switching pattern a second mode of operation. When the average current comparator determines that the average current is below the current threshold, the switch signal generation circuit is operated in a first mode, and when the average current comparator determines that the average current is not below the current threshold, the switch signal generation circuit is operated in a second mode. | 04-09-2015 |
20150145486 | DIGITAL CONTROLLER FOR SWITCHED MODE POWER CONVERTER - In one example, a method includes receiving a voltage value and comparing the voltage value to a reference voltage value to determine a delta voltage value. The method may also include determining a reference current value based on the delta voltage value. The method may also include receiving a current value and comparing the current value to the reference current value to determine a delta current value. The method may also include determining a threshold value based on the delta current value, where the threshold value is used to define a control signal that controls a power converter. | 05-28-2015 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090238430 | MRI ACQUISITION USING SENSE AND HIGHLY UNDERSAMPLED FOURIER SPACE SAMPLING - An MRI system produces a three-dimensional image by acquiring NMR signals that fully sample a central region of k-space and partially sample peripheral region of k-space. Specifically, k-space is arranged as a three-dimensional (3D) Cartesian grid of points that is divided into a central region of k-space and a peripheral region of k-space. Points are selected in k-space within a plurality of radial vanes that extend radially outward from the central region of k-space through the peripheral region of k-space as viewed in a plane sampled by two phase encoding gradients to create a plurality of gaps between the radial vanes that is substantially a factor of N times greater in area than the radial vanes. Using an MRI system having arrays of RF receiver coils, NMR signals are acquired from a subject to fully sample the central region of the 3D k-space and undersample the peripheral region of k-space by only sampling k-space within the plurality of radial vanes. An image of the subject is reconstructed using the acquired NMR signals. | 09-24-2009 |
20100182008 | System and Method for Embedded Self-Calibration within an Inversion Recovery Pulse Sequence - An improved self-calibration method for accelerated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using inversion recovery pulse sequences allows calibration data for determining coil sensitivity profiles to be acquired by employing a calibration pulse sequence within the delay time of an inversion recovery pulse sequence. The calibration pulse sequence includes a constrained number of calibration pulses having small flip angles so that acceptable longitudinal magnetization recovery is provided. | 07-22-2010 |
20110109314 | Method and apparatus for improving 2D acceleration in MRI using a new coil array design - The present invention is a coil array for an MRI system that is designed to improve 2D accelerated imaging of an object having significantly different fields of view in two phase-encoding directions. This is achieved by having a first set of coil elements whose sizes are tuned to optimize acceleration along a first phase-encoding direction and a second set of coil elements whose sizes are tuned to optimize acceleration along a second-phase encoding direction. Images acquired in accordance with the present invention exhibit improved signal to noise ratio at a given acceleration factor when compared to images acquired using a traditional MR coil array. | 05-12-2011 |
20110184273 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MOVING TABLE MRI - The present invention provides an MRI system for imaging of a subject over extended field-of-view (FOV) that employs both accelerated data acquisition, which is employed while the subject is stationary, and traditional data acquisition, which is employed while the subject is moved through the MRI system. This approach provides improved spatial resolution and time efficiency compared to traditional extended FOV imaging techniques. | 07-28-2011 |
20110194746 | Method for Time-of-Arrival Mapping in Magnetic Resonance Imaging - A method for producing an image indicative of the time-of-arrival of contrast agent in a tissue of interest is provided. More specifically, a time-of-arrival is calculated for each voxel location in a time series of magnetic resonance (MR) images. The accuracy of the time-of-arrival presentation is enhanced when the underlying MR image acquisition is consistent, is done with compact sampling of the k-space center, has minimal temporal footprint for each image, and has a negligible anticipation artifact. The time-of-arrival presentation can be further enhanced by the suppression of signals from background tissue by using, for example, thresholding or by conversion of the time-of-arrival information into a color scale. | 08-11-2011 |
20120081118 | SKEWED RADIO FREQUENCY COIL ARRAYS FOR MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING - A radio frequency (RF) coil array configured for use with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system and that includes coil elements with a skewed coil geometry is provided. The coil elements are skewed with respect to a given direction, such as the slice-encoding direction of an MRI system, such that a variation in spatial sensitivity along that direction is provided. This spatial sensitivity variation allows for parallel imaging acceleration along the direction of the variation, which provides improved performance over standard rectangular geometries in performing acceleration along the slice-encode direction for three-dimensional axial acquisitions. | 04-05-2012 |
20120253175 | System and Method for Imbedded, High-Spatial Resolution, Fluoroscopic Tracking of Multi-Station, Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Angiography - A method of producing a series of vasculature images over an extended field of view (FOV) larger than an FOV of an MRI system includes acquiring initial time-resolved image data from the vasculature and, during the acquiring process, reconstructing, in substantially real-time, a series of three-dimensional (3D) tracking images of the initial portion of the vasculature illustrating a current position of a contrast bolus in the vasculature as the contrast bolus passes through the initial portion of the vasculature. Based on a current position of the contrast bolus, the subject is moved to a subsequent imaging station to acquire subsequent time-resolved image data and reconstruct subsequent 3D tracking images of subsequent portions of the vasculature. This process is repeated and then an image is assembled that extends over the extended FOV using the initial time-resolved image data and the subsequent time-resolved image data. | 10-04-2012 |
20120299590 | Method for Self-Calibrated Parallel Magnetic Resonance Image Reconstruction - A method for producing a time-series of images of a subject with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system is provided. The MRI system is used to acquire a time-series undersampled k-space data set, in which a selected number of k-space data subsets in the time-series data set includes both image data and calibration data. Moreover, the calibration data in each of these selected number of k-space data subsets includes a portion of a desired total amount of calibration data. For example, each of these selected number of k-space data subsets include calibration data that is acquired by sampling a different partition of a calibration data sampling pattern. A time-series of images of the subject is then produced by reconstructing images of the subject from the acquired time-series of undersampled k-space data sets. These images are substantially free of undersampling artifacts. | 11-29-2012 |
20130063146 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING CALIBRATION AND DELAY PHASES OF PARALLEL, CONTRAST-ENHANCED MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING - A system and method for performing parallel magnetic resonance angiography includes controlling operation of a magnetic gradient system and an RF system to perform a calibration data pulse sequence to begin acquiring calibration data for use in a parallel imaging reconstruction process after receiving an indication that the subject has received a dose of a contrast agent. The acquisition of the calibration data is discontinued before the contrast agent reaches a peak concentration within a region of interest (ROI) of the subject and operation of the magnetic gradient system and RF system is controlled to perform an imaging pulse sequence in accordance with a parallel imaging acquisition to begin acquiring image data from the ROI. The image data is reconstructed into an image of the ROI using the calibration data. | 03-14-2013 |
20130123611 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMBINED TIME-RESOLVED MAGNETIC RESONANCE ANGIOGRAPHY AND PERFUSION IMAGING - A method for performing magnetic resonance angiography and perfusion imaging using the same pulse sequence is provided. Time-resolved image data is acquired as a contrast agent passes through a subject. This image data is acquired by sampling Cartesian points in k-space that are contained within either a central region of k-space, or one of a plurality of different sets of radial sectors extending outwards from the central region. The image data is combined to form individual image frame data sets that are then reconstructed to produce a time series of image frames. From this time series, MR angiograms and perfusion maps are produced. With the added acquisition of calibration data, T1 relaxation parameters are estimated and quantitative perfusion maps produced. | 05-16-2013 |
20130281831 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMPROVED ACCELERATED MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING USING ROI MASKING - A system and method for creating at least one angiographic image using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system includes acquiring, with the MRI system and using parallel imaging techniques, a pre-contrast image data set and a post-contrast image data set of a portion of a subject having a vascular structure extending therethrough and subtracting the pre-contrast and the post-contrast image data set to generate a difference angiogram data set. The method includes reconstructing the difference angiogram data set into at least one aliased angiogram, creating a region of interest (ROI) mask from an image of the portion of the subject, and indicating a masking border surrounding the vascular structure and substantially excluding tissues surrounding the vascular structure. The method then includes de-aliasing the at least one aliased angiogram using the ROI mask to create an angiogram of the portion of the subject. | 10-24-2013 |
20140077801 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PARALLEL MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING WITH OPTIMALLY SELECTED IN-PLANE ACCELERATION - A method for three-dimensional parallel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using an MRI system is provided. The method includes determining in-plane acceleration factors that optimize a selected criterion, such as an image quality criterion defined by maximal noise amplification in a reconstructed image. The estimated in-plane acceleration factors are used to establish a k-space sampling pattern, which is used to acquire k-space data. An image is reconstructed from the acquired k-space data using a parallel image reconstruction technique. | 03-20-2014 |
20150247910 | System and Method for Random Cartesian Acquisition with Projection Reconstruction-Like Sampling - A system and method are provided for producing a magnetic resonance image of a subject with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system. The method includes acquiring k-space image data from a subject arranged in an MRI system by performing a pulse sequence. To perform the pulse sequence the MRI system divides k-space into a plurality of radially-extending sectors extending along a radial direction away from an origin of k-space. The plurality of radially-extending sectors include a width transverse to the radial direction that is defined by a vane angle chosen to be greater than a floating point precision of the trigonometric functions that define the radially-extending sectors. The MRI system acquires imaging data from at least the radially-extending sectors to undersample the periphery of k-space by only sampling k-space within the plurality of radial sectors and reconstructs an image of the subject using the imaging data. | 09-03-2015 |