Parallelized calculation of the T2 relaxation time in MRI

This paper presents the computation of relaxation time T₂ measured with the Spin Echo method. The tomograph provides a signal in which the important factor is the location of the peaks from individual measurements. These points must be interleaved with an exponential function. The described process has to be repeated for each pixel of the sensed tissue, and this requirement makes the processing of larger images very time-consuming. Assuming the resolution of 256×256, 20 slices, and 5 measurements with different times T _E, it is necessary to reconstruct 1.3·10⁶ exponential functions, which requires the processing of more than 6 MB of data. At present, such computation lasts approximately 3 minutes if performed by means of a regular PC. The author discusses various approaches to the parallelization of the given problem. In the described context, the time required for the processing was shortened to 300 ms.