Higher Order Corrections for Background Phase in Flow Imaging.

Abstract

Phase contrast (PC) is an invaluable tool for the measurement of blood flow. Unfortunately gradients and eddy currents introduce background phase offsets that can lead to significant errors. It is generally advised that background phase correction should be made by subtracting the phase of stationary tissue adjacent to the vessel of interest; however background phase varies across the image and choosing stationary tissue distant from the vessel may actually worsen the result.