Patent Application
20150285889
The present disclosure generally relates to the field of medical imaging for analysis of certain physiological activities of a subject. Cardiac imaging to analyze myocardial strain, for example, is of growing importance for the clinical assessment of heart disease. Various conventional imaging techniques can provide for an assessment of the heart with regard to spatial coverage and an evaluation of the strain tensor. For example, three-dimensional (3D) measurements can provide a complete assessment of the heart with regard to spatial coverage and a comprehensive evaluation of the strain tensor.
Phase-contrast displacement encoding have been used for myocardial imaging, and cine DENSE (displacement encoding with stimulated echoes) has emerged as a strain imaging technique that, compared to tagging, can offer high spatial resolution, equivalent accuracy and better reproducibility, and where strain analysis is less time consuming. ([1], [2], [3]). DENSE can provide quantification of myocardial strain based on displacement of myocardial tissue, where tissue displacement is encoded as a phase of a stimulated-echo signal. Image acquisition times in cine DENSE can be relatively long and, due to properties inherent to stimulated echoes, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) can be relatively low. The low SNR, requirements to preserve phase information, and cardiac motion present technical challenges.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the various embodiments described below are presented.
In one aspect, the present disclosure relates to a method for accelerated imaging of an area of interest of a subject. In one embodiment, the method includes acquiring magnetic resonance data associated with a physiological activity in an area of interest of a subject. The acquiring includes performing accelerated variable-density sampling with phase-contrast displacement encoding. The method also includes reconstructing, from the acquired magnetic resonance data, images corresponding to the physiological activity in the area of interest. The reconstructing includes performing parallel imaging and compressed sensing.
In another aspect, the present disclosure relates to a system for accelerated imaging of an area of interest of a subject. In one embodiment, the system includes a data acquisition device and an image processing device. The data acquisition device is configured to acquire magnetic resonance data associated with a physiological activity in an area of interest of a subject. The acquiring includes performing accelerated variable-density sampling with phase-contrast displacement encoding. The image processing device is configured to reconstruct, from the acquired magnetic resonance data, images corresponding to the physiological activity in the area of interest. The reconstructing includes performing parallel imaging and compressed sensing.
In yet another aspect, the present disclosure relates to a non-transitory computer-readable medium. In one embodiment, the computer-readable medium has stored computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a computer to perform a method for accelerated imaging of an area of interest of a subject. In one embodiment, the method includes acquiring magnetic resonance data associated with a physiological activity in an area of interest of a subject. The acquiring includes performing accelerated variable-density sampling with phase-contrast displacement encoding. The method also includes reconstructing, from the acquired magnetic resonance data, images corresponding to the physiological activity in the area of interest. The reconstructing includes performing parallel imaging and compressed sensing.
Other aspects and features according to the present disclosure will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, upon reviewing the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying figures.
Reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale.
The present disclosure relates to methods, systems, and computer-readable media for performing aspects of accelerated imaging of an area of interest of a subject. Although example embodiments of the present disclosure are explained in detail herein, it is to be understood that other embodiments are contemplated. Accordingly, it is not intended that the present disclosure be limited in its scope to the details of construction and arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The present disclosure is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in various ways.
It must also be noted that, as used in the specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
Ranges may be expressed herein as from “about” or “approximately” one particular value and/or to “about” or “approximately” another particular value. When such a range is expressed, other exemplary embodiments include from the one particular value and/or to the other particular value.
By “comprising” or “containing” or “including” is meant that at least the named compound, element, particle, or method step is present in the composition or article or method, but does not exclude the presence of other compounds, materials, particles, method steps, even if the other such compounds, material, particles, method steps have the same function as what is named.
In describing example embodiments, terminology will be resorted to for the sake of clarity. It is intended that each term contemplates its broadest meaning as understood by those skilled in the art and includes all technical equivalents that operate in a similar manner to accomplish a similar purpose.
It is also to be understood that the mention of one or more steps of a method does not preclude the presence of additional method steps or intervening method steps between those steps expressly identified. Steps of a method may be performed in a different order than those described herein without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Similarly, it is also to be understood that the mention of one or more components in a device or system does not preclude the presence of additional components or intervening components between those components expressly identified.
As discussed herein, a “subject” or “patient” may be a human or any animal. It should be appreciated that an animal may be a variety of any applicable type, including, but not limited thereto, mammal, veterinarian animal, livestock animal or pet type animal, etc. As an example, the animal may be a laboratory animal specifically selected to have certain characteristics similar to a human (e.g., rat, dog, pig, monkey), etc. It should be appreciated that the subject may be any applicable human patient, for example.
In the following description, references are made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof and that show, by way of illustration, specific embodiments or examples. In referring to the drawings, like numerals represent like elements throughout the several figures.
The area of interest A corresponds to a region associated with one or more physiological activities in patient P. The area of interest shown in the example embodiment of
It should be appreciated that any number and type of computer-based medical imaging systems or components, including various types of commercially available medical imaging systems and components, may be used to practice certain aspects of the present disclosure. Systems as described herein with respect to example embodiments are not intended to be specifically limited to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) implementations or the particular system shown in
One or more data acquisition or data collection steps as described herein in accordance with one or more embodiments may include acquiring, collecting, receiving, or otherwise obtaining data such as imaging data corresponding to an area of interest. By way of example, data acquisition or collection may include acquiring data via a data acquisition device, receiving data from an on-site or off-site data acquisition device or from another data collection, storage, or processing device. Similarly, data acquisition or data collection devices of a system in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure may include any device configured to acquire, collect, or otherwise obtain data, or to receive data from a data acquisition device within the system, an independent data acquisition device located on-site or off-site, or another data collection, storage, or processing device.
As shown, the computer 200 includes a processing unit 202 (“CPU”), a system memory 204, and a system bus 206 that couples the memory 204 to the CPU 202. The computer 200 further includes a mass storage device 212 for storing program modules 214. The program modules 214 may be operable to perform one or more functions associated with embodiments illustrated in one or more of
The mass storage device 212 is connected to the CPU 202 through a mass storage controller (not shown) connected to the bus 206. The mass storage device 212 and its associated computer-storage media provide non-volatile storage for the computer 200. Although the description of computer-storage media contained herein refers to a mass storage device, such as a hard disk or CD-ROM drive, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that computer-storage media can be any available computer storage media that can be accessed by the computer 200.
By way of example, and not limitation, computer-storage media (also referred to herein as a “computer-readable storage medium” or “computer-readable storage media”) may include volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer-storage instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data. For example, computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other solid state memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (“DVD”), HD-DVD, BLU-RAY, or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by the computer 200. Transitory signals are not “computer-storage media”, “computer-readable storage medium” or “computer-readable storage media” as described herein.
According to various embodiments, the computer 200 may operate in a networked environment using connections to other local or remote computers through a network 216 via a network interface unit 210 connected to the bus 206. The network interface unit 210 may facilitate connection of the computing device inputs and outputs to one or more suitable networks and/or connections such as a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), the Internet, a cellular network, a radio frequency network, a Bluetooth-enabled network, a Wi-Fi enabled network, a satellite-based network, or other wired and/or wireless networks for communication with external devices and/or systems. The computer 200 may also include an input/output controller 208 for receiving and processing input from a number of input devices. Input devices may include one or more of keyboards, mice, stylus, touchscreens, microphones, audio capturing devices, or image/video capturing devices. An end user may utilize such input devices to interact with a user interface, for example a graphical user interface, for managing various functions performed by the computer 200.
The bus 206 may enable the processing unit 202 to read code and/or data to/from the mass storage device 212 or other computer-storage media. The computer-storage media may represent apparatus in the form of storage elements that are implemented using any suitable technology, including but not limited to semiconductors, magnetic materials, optics, or the like. The computer-storage media may represent memory components, whether characterized as RAM, ROM, flash, or other types of technology. The computer-storage media may also represent secondary storage, whether implemented as hard drives or otherwise. Hard drive implementations may be characterized as solid state, or may include rotating media storing magnetically-encoded information. The program modules 214, which include the imaging application 218, may include instructions that, when loaded into the processing unit 202 and executed, cause the computer 200 to provide functions associated with embodiments illustrated in
In general, the program modules 214 may, when loaded into the processing unit 202 and executed, transform the processing unit 202 and the overall computer 200 from a general-purpose computing system into a special-purpose computing system. The processing unit 202 may be constructed from any number of transistors or other discrete circuit elements, which may individually or collectively assume any number of states. More specifically, the processing unit 202 may operate as a finite-state machine, in response to executable instructions contained within the program modules 214. These computer-executable instructions may transform the processing unit 202 by specifying how the processing unit 202 transitions between states, thereby transforming the transistors or other discrete hardware elements constituting the processing unit 202.
Encoding the program modules 214 may also transform the physical structure of the computer-storage media. The specific transformation of physical structure may depend on various factors, in different implementations of this description. Examples of such factors may include, but are not limited to the technology used to implement the computer-storage media, whether the computer storage media are characterized as primary or secondary storage, and the like. For example, if the computer-storage media are implemented as semiconductor-based memory, the program modules 214 may transform the physical state of the semiconductor memory, when the software is encoded therein. For example, the program modules 214 may transform the state of transistors, capacitors, or other discrete circuit elements constituting the semiconductor memory.
As another example, the computer-storage media may be implemented using magnetic or optical technology. In such implementations, the program modules 214 may transform the physical state of magnetic or optical media, when the software is encoded therein. These transformations may include altering the magnetic characteristics of particular locations within given magnetic media. These transformations may also include altering the physical features or characteristics of particular locations within given optical media, to change the optical characteristics of those locations. Other transformations of physical media are possible without departing from the scope of the present description, with the foregoing examples provided only to facilitate this discussion.
The variable-density sampling may include variable-density spiral sampling, and the phase-contrast displacement encoding may include cine displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (DENSE). The acquiring of the magnetic resonance data may use a variable density Cartesian trajectory or a non-Cartesian trajectory.
The parallel imaging may include combining multi-channel parallel imaging data using sensitivity maps calculated from temporally-averaged data. The compressed sensing may include regional-sparsity based compressed sensing. The compressed sensing may include regional-sparsity based compressed sensing and motion-guided compressed sensing wherein: combined images from the parallel imaging are divided into regions; each of the regions is motion-tracked over time; and, matrix low-rank sparsity is exploited in the motion-tracked regions to remove artifacts. The compressed sensing may alternatively include regional-sparsity based compressed sensing wherein combined images from the parallel imaging are divided into regions, and the regions are treated as static over time and low-rank sparsity is exploited in the same image region over time.
Performing the accelerated variable-density sampling with phase-contrast displacement encoding may include spiral sampling with fully-sampled or over-sampled center portions of the k-space and undersampled outer portions of the k-space. Undersampling may be performed in the in-plane kx-ky direction, and for three-dimensional imaging, undersampling may be performed in the through-plane kz direction, which may include fully sampling center kz partitions and randomly sampling higher spatial frequency kz partitions.
The compressed sensing may include performing motion-guided compressed sensing functions wherein three-dimensional images from the parallel imaging are divided into cubes that are motion-tracked over time and low-rank sparsity is exploited inside the motion-tracked cubes to remove artifacts. Alternatively, the cubes may be treated as static over time and low-rank sparsity may be exploited in the same cube over time.
The method 300 may also include identifying, based on the reconstructed images, one or more characteristics of the physiological activity in the area of interest of the subject. The area of interest of the subject may include the heart of the subject, and the one or more characteristics of the physiological activity may include myocardial strain. The variable-density sampling may comprise variable-density spiral sampling that includes distributing spiral interleaves uniformly within each of a plurality of cardiac phases and rotation by the golden angle through different cardiac phases of the plurality of cardiac phases.
The following description provides a further discussion of certain aspects of the present disclosure in accordance with example embodiments. A discussion of example implementations and results of practicing various aspects of the present disclosure will also be presented.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, a cine DENSE pulse sequence is used to achieve acceleration, with compressed sensing (CS) and parallel imaging (PI). Those skilled in the art will recognize that compressed sensing generally refers to a signal processing technique for efficiently recovering certain signals and images, which relies on principles of sparsity and incoherence. ([4]). Those skilled in the art will also recognize that in the context of magnetic resonance imaging, parallel imaging generally refers to methods that use spatial information obtained from arrays of RF coils sampling data in parallel. ([5]).
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, variable-density spiral sampling is used for data acquisition, with full sampling for the center of k-space and undersampling for the outer portion of k-space. Spiral interleaves (see
In some embodiments, image reconstruction is performed using a Block LOw-rank Sparsity with Motion-guidance (BLOSM) CS method ([6],[7]) combined with sensitivity encoding (SENSE) ([8]). SENSE is based on the fact that receiver sensitivity generally has an encoding effect complementary to Fourier preparation by linear field gradients. Thus, by using multiple receiver coils in parallel scan time in Fourier imaging can be considerably reduced. This approach exploits matrix low-rank sparsity within motion-tracked regions of SENSE-combined images. As shown in
Sensitivity maps can be calculated from temporally-averaged DENSE phase reference data to avoid phase aliasing when estimating coil sensitivities. Non-uniform fast-Fourier Transform (FFT) ([9]) can be used for transforming data between k-space and the image domain.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, three-dimensional (3D) cine DENSE is used to achieve acceleration using compressed sensing (CS) and parallel imaging (PI). The 3D cine DENSE technique may be a modified version of a navigator-gated 3D spiral cine DENSE sequence ([10]). In some embodiments, data undersampling can be performed both in the in-plane (kx-ky) and through-plane (kz) directions. For in-plane acceleration, a select number of variable-density spiral interleaves can be used in accordance with a predetermined rate of acceleration. The interleaves can be uniformly distributed within each cardiac phase and rotated by the golden angle through different cardiac phases. For through-plane acceleration, a select number of partition encodings, according to a predetermined rate of acceleration, can be acquired following a variable density kz-t sampling pattern wherein a predetermined number of center kz partitions are fully sampled and higher spatial frequency kz partitions are randomly sampled.
In some embodiments, image reconstruction and analysis uses BLOSM and SENSE in which certain techniques used for reconstructed accelerated two-dimensional (2D) cine DENSE imaging ([11]) are extended for use in 3D imaging (3D BLOSM-SENSE). In the extended technique for 3D imaging, multi-channel data can be combined into images using sensitivity maps calculated from temporally-averaged data. The dynamic 3D images can be divided into small cubes and matrix low rank sparsity can be exploited inside these cubes to remove artifacts.
As shown in
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, accelerated three-dimensional (3D) cine DENSE is achieved using compressed sensing (CS) and parallel imaging (PI). The 3D cine DENSE technique may be a modified version of a navigator-gated 3D spiral cine DENSE sequence ([10]). In some embodiments, stack-of-spirals trajectory is used to cover the 3D k-space and data undersampling can be performed both in the in-plane (kx-ky) and through-plane (kz) directions. For in-plane acceleration, a select number of variable-density spiral interleaves can be used in accordance with a predetermined rate of acceleration. In
In some embodiments, image reconstruction uses a combination of BLOSM and SENSE in which certain techniques used for reconstructed accelerated two-dimensional (2D) cine DENSE imaging ([11]) are extended for use in 3D imaging (3D BLOSM). In the extended technique for 3D imaging, multi-channel data can be combined into single-channel images using 3D sensitivity maps calculated from temporally-averaged data. The dynamic 3D images can be divided into small cubes and matrix low rank sparsity can be exploited inside these cubes to remove artifacts.
In the BLOSM technique ([6], [7]), images may be divided (separated) into regions, the regions may be tracked over time, and singular value decomposition (SVD) may be applied to the tracked regions, which can both account for regional non-periodic variations in motion and can exploit regional spatiotemporal sparsity. In some example embodiments, the regions may be square blocks, and aspects of matrix low-rank sparsity are utilized. BLOSM can utilize data-driven spatiotemporal basis functions applied to regions and achieve motion compensation by embedding regional motion tracking into the iterative compressed sensing (CS) image reconstruction algorithm. With this combination, BLOSM can attain benefits of data-driven spatiotemporal basis functions while substantially reducing artifacts from non-periodic motion such as breathing.
Some aspects of tracking blocks of pixels and exploiting regional low-rank sparsity using BLOSM will now be described. As described in further detail in U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2014/0219531, in implementations of BLOSM, block of pixels can be tracked throughout frames. Temporally related blocks with similar spatial contents are gathered together to form a 3D (Nb×Nb×Nt) cluster, the content of which has a high spatiotemporal correlation. The cluster is rearranged into a 2D matrix (Ns×Nt, Ns=Nb×Nb), and Singular value decomposition (SVD) is applied to the matrix. The smaller singular values which mainly represent noises and artifacts are diminished, while the larger singular values which mainly represent the real object are kept.
Now also referring to
As illustrated in
In alternative embodiments of compressed sensing according to the present disclosure, rather than tracking motion for each of the cubes over time, the cubes can be treated to be static over time and low-rank sparsity is exploited in the same cube over time. Approaches other than the above-described technique can be used for converting a 4D dataset to a 2D matrix for SVD to get the singular values. Further, higher-order singular value decomposition functions (HOSVD) may be used in order to analyze a higher dimensional matrix. Also, in 3D cine DENSE according to one or more embodiments disclosed herein, joint-sparsity reconstruction can be performed, where data from different displacement encodings are put together for reconstruction.
The following describes examples of implementing some aspects of the present disclosure, and corresponding results.
A first example (Example 1) of practicing aspects of the present disclosure will now be described, along with corresponding results. Example 1 shows an implementation of accelerated cine DENSE MRI techniques with image reconstruction using compressed sensing (CS) and parallel imaging (PI).
Methods
A variable-density spiral cine DENSE sequence was implemented where the center of k-space was fully sampled and the outer portion of k-space was undersampled. Spiral interleaves were distributed uniformly within each cardiac phase and rotated by the golden angle through different cardiac phases to achieve randomness in time. For image reconstruction, BLOSM was used for compressed sensing, combined with parallel imaging using SENSE. This approach exploits matrix low-rank sparsity within motion-tracked regions of SENSE-combined images. Sensitivity maps were calculated from temporally-averaged DENSE phase reference data to avoid phase aliasing when estimating coil sensitivities. Non-uniform FFT ([9]) was used for transforming data between k-space and the image domain. For comparison, undersampled datasets were also reconstructed using SENSE without CS.
Short-axis cine DENSE images of the left ventricle were collected from 5 healthy volunteers on a 1.5T MRI scanner (Siemens Avanto) with a body-spine combined array RF coil (5 channel). Fully-sampled datasets with 2D in-plane displacement encoding and 6 to 8 spiral interleaves per image were acquired within a long breathhold (20 to 26 heartbeats), and prospectively accelerated datasets at rates 2 and 4 (with 4 and 2 spiral interleaves per image) were acquired within much shorter breathholds of 14 and 8 heartbeats, respectively. The fully-sampled datasets provided reference images, and retrospective undersampling of these datasets was used to evaluate the new methodologies. Prospectively acquired undersampled cine DENSE datasets demonstrated true acceleration. Imaging parameters included field of view (FOV) 280-320×280-320 mm2, spatial resolution 1.8-2.2×1.8-2.2×8 mm3, ramped flip angle with the last flip angle=15°, TR 9.8 ms, TE 1.3 ms, temporal resolution 19.6 ms, and cardiac phases 35-38. Image quality was analyzed by measuring the mean squared error (MSE) for retrospectively undersampled data and the SNR for all the data. Myocardial strain was computed using standard methods ([2]). Using the retrospectively undersampled and prospectively accelerated data, segmental circumferential stain (Ecc) was compared to the fully-sampled data.
Results
Thus, it is shown by the results in the implementation of aspects of the present disclosure in this Example 1 that using variable-density spiral acquisitions with golden angle rotations and BLOSM-SENSE reconstruction, accelerated cine DENSE images with two-dimensional in-plane displacement encoding can be acquired in a single breathhold, as short as 8 heartbeats. This represents an improvement over prior protocols that may require two 14-heartbeats breathholds or more to acquire equivalent datasets. These methods, when available with rapid online reconstruction, may significantly simplify the clinical use of cine DENSE for high-quality myocardial strain imaging.
A second example (Example 2) of practicing aspects of the present disclosure will now be described, along with corresponding results. Example 2 shows an implementation of three-dimensional (3D) cine DENSE used to achieve acceleration using compressed sensing (CS) and parallel imaging (PI). The 3D cine DENSE technique may be a modified version of a navigator-gated 3D spiral cine DENSE sequence ([4]).
Methods
A navigator-gated 3D stack-of-spirals cine DENSE sequence ([4]) was modified to achieve acceleration using compressed sensing and parallel imaging (CS-PI). Data undersampling was performed both in the in-plane (kx-ky) and through-plane (kz) directions. For in-plane acceleration, 2 out of 6 variable-density spiral interleaves were used (rate-3 acceleration). The 2 spiral interleaves were uniformly distributed within each cardiac phase and rotated by the golden angle through different cardiac phases. For through-plane acceleration, 7 out of 14 partition encodings (rate-2 acceleration) were acquired following a variable density kz-t sampling pattern where the center 3 kz partitions were fully sampled and higher spatial frequency kz partitions were randomly sampled.
For data collection, prospectively rate-6 (3×2) accelerated 3D cine DENSE data were collected from 6 healthy volunteers on a 1.5 T scanner (Siemens Avanto) using a 5-channel RF coil. The imaging protocol included: voxel size ˜2.5×2.5×5.0 mm3, temporal resolution 32 msec, cardiac phases ˜22, displacement-encoding frequency ke=0.06 cycles/mm, end expiration navigator acceptance window width of ±3 mm. Fully-sampled 3D cine DENSE scans were also completed for 4 cases. Two scans were not completed due to drifting respiratory patterns.
For data reconstruction and analysis, a CS BLOSM and SENSE technique was used for reconstruction of accelerated 2D cine DENSE imaging. This technique was extended for 3D imaging (3D BLOSM-SENSE). Multi-channel data were combined into images using sensitivity maps calculated from temporally-averaged data. The dynamic 3D images were divided into small cubes and matrix low rank sparsity was exploited inside these cubes to remove artifacts. Three-dimensional strain analyses were performed using a semi-automatic method ([12]).
Results
Example reconstructed images from rate-6 prospectively accelerated 3D DENSE data show high image quality in both magnitude and phase through the whole heart (
Thus, it is shown by the results in the implementation of aspects of the present disclosure in this Example 2 that accelerated 3D cine DENSE imaging can improve scan time from ˜25 minutes to ˜3 minutes. High image quality was achieved and strain analysis showed expected values for normal subjects. These results suggest that acceleration can make it feasible to routinely employ 3D cine DENSE for clinical comprehensive myocardial strain imaging with scan times of around 3 minutes.
The specific configurations, choice of materials and the size and shape of various elements can be varied according to particular design specifications or constraints requiring a system or method constructed according to the principles of the present disclosure. Such changes are intended to be embraced within the scope of the present disclosure. The presently disclosed embodiments, therefore, are considered in all respects to be illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is indicated by the appended claims, rather than the foregoing description, and all changes that come within the meaning and range of equivalents thereof are intended to be embraced therein.
This Application claims priority to and benefit under 35 U.S.C §119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/974,255, entitled “Accelerated Cine DENSE using Variable Density Spirals and Compressed Sensing with Parallel Imaging,” filed Apr. 2, 2014, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety as if fully set forth below. Some references, which may include patents, patent applications, and various publications, are cited in a reference list and discussed in the disclosure provided herein. The citation and/or discussion of such references is provided merely to clarify the description of the present disclosure and is not an admission that any such reference is “prior art” to any aspects of the present disclosure described herein. All references cited and discussed in this specification are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties and to the same extent as if each reference was individually incorporated by reference. In terms of notation, hereinafter, “[n]” represents the nth reference cited in the reference list. For example, [4] represents the 4th reference cited in the reference list, namely, Candès, J. et al., “An Introduction to Compressive Sampling”. IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, March 2008, p. 22.
The invention was made in part with U.S. Government support under Grants R01 EB001763 and R01 HL115225, awarded by the National Institutes of Health. The U.S. Government has certain rights in the invention.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61974255 | Apr 2014 | US |
