A system of tumor imaging of the abdomen and thorax is proposed. Although MRI has provided excellent soft tissue contrast in a non-invasive non-toxic fashion, the benefits have accrued primarily in those areas which can be successfully immobilized. Thus the head, pelvis, spine, extremities etc. can be stabilized for a few minute scan. Images of the abdomen and thorax are plagued by severe breathing artifacts. We propose to provide these benefits to all areas of the abdomen and thorax by acquiring the data within a breath-holding interval. This is accomplished by a novel system utilizing a set of interleaved square spiral scans of k-space. This unique approach, which has been successfully implemented, acquires the data in a few seconds using conventional MRI imaging systems. The proposed fast imaging system will be enhanced with a number of important features. Tumors are often difficult to visualize because their characteristics are similar to surrounding tissue. The contrast is significantly improving by using very late echoes, but suffer from excess noise. The images can be profoundly improved using a system of """"""""correlative"""""""" filtering where a low-noise early echo is used to enhance the high-contrast late echo image. Other important features of the improved tumor images include flow imaging for tumor vascularity, robust separation of water and fat, and self-focusing excitations which enable the imaging of materials with extremely short relaxation times. Tissues such as lung parenchyma, which is normally not visualized, can be imaged with this approach.
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