Unified multiple‐feature color display for MR images

A display method is proposed in which the spin‐lattice relaxation time T1, the spinspin relaxation time T2, and the proton density ρ of each pixel in a MR image are simultaneously expressed in color features in a unified way that allows international standardization. MR images were made from a phantom, a healthy volunteer, and patients in such a way that T1 and T2 and proton density images could be derived. T1 and T2 data were compared with accurate relaxation time measurements of the phantom content. Color images were computed from the acquired T1 and T2 images using matrix multiplication on a pixel base. In this way the color combination in each pixel represents the properties of that particular pixel by a unique mixing of the elementary colors red, green, and blue. Color resolution could be modified using different choices of the reference triangle in which the color combinations were defined. This method of representation offers a means for displaying multiple features as T1, and T2 in one directly interpretable image, independent of instrumental settings. © 1989 Academic Press, Inc.