BME 6180 - Principles of Magnetic Resonance Imaging

(crosslisted) ECE 5180, VETCS 6180

Fall. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

Prerequisite: calculus based physics and knowledge of Fourier transformation. Three credit enrollment requires functional knowledge and skills of linear algebra, calculus, Fourier transformation, and calculus-based physics. The students will have hands-on experience to scan phantoms at Cornell MRI facility. The students may also attend field trips to the Cornell University Hospital for Animals and Cayuga Medical Center (Weill Cornell Medical Center for students at NYC campus) to observe imaging in clinical practice, pending on hospital courtesies.

Y. Wang.

After a brief overview of all major medical modalities: x-ray, CT, MRI, SPECT/PET, and US, this course will focus on the formulations of spatial encoding and image contrasts as exemplified in MRI. The inverse problem between detected signal and image source will be discussed for biomedical applications. The concepts of image resolution, image contrast, SNR, and scan time will be illustrated quantitatively from an engineering point of view.