An apparatus (and method) for automated NMR relaxation measurements on borehole materials (e.g., drill cuttings, sidewall cores and whole cores) includes a sample cassette and a sample transfer system operating synchronized with the NMR experiment. The apparatus implements an automatic calibration, adaptive data stacking and automated measurements of the sample volume for irregular shaped samples. The measurements throughput may be increased by creating more than one excitation/detection volume during a measurement cycle. The NMR surface data may be interpreted together with other bulk sensitive measurement data (e.g. natural gamma ray spectroscopy) or/and downhole data to evaluate earth formations while drilling an oil well.

Apparatus and techniques are described herein for nuclear magnetic resonance (MR) projection imaging. Such projection imaging may be used to control radiation therapy delivery to a subject, such as including receiving reference imaging information, generating a two-dimensional (2D) projection image using imaging information obtained via nuclear magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, the 2D projection image corresponding to a specified projection direction, the specified projection direction including a path traversing at least a portion of an imaging subject, determining a change between the generated 2D projection image and the reference imaging information, and controlling delivery of the radiation therapy at least in part using the determined change between the obtained 2D projection image and the reference imaging information.

In one embodiment, an MRI apparatus includes: a scanner equipped with at least a static magnetic field magnet, a gradient coil, and an RF coil configured to apply RF pulses to an object and receive magnetic resonance signals from the object; and processing circuitry configured to set a pulse sequence in which refocusing pulses are sequentially applied subsequent to application of one excitation pulse and a predetermined number of magnetic resonance signals are acquired in each period between adjacent two refocusing pulses by using a water/fat separation method, such that the magnetic resonance signals are different in echo time TE for each of the plurality of refocusing pulses, cause the scanner to acquire the magnetic resonance signals under the pulse sequence, and generate a computed image from the magnetic resonance signals, the computed image being a magnetic resonance image of the object obtained by computation.

In a structural analysis using NMR techniques, a method for gathering k-value data from frequency encoded spin echoes generated from internal volumes selectively excited by intersecting 90° and 180° slice selective and refocusing RF pulses and subjected to a read gradient for the purpose of quantifying the spatial frequency content of the selected internal volume without contamination by a FID signal, comprising: acquiring spin echo data such that the FID signal generated by imperfections in the 180° slice selective refocusing RF pulse is attenuated by the read gradient such that any remaining FID signal is spatially encoded with higher k-values than the frequency encoded k-values being recorded for subsequent structural analysis while simultaneously providing for t2 t2* and t1 contrast. Other aspects of the invention are disclosed.

A method for performing magnetic resonance imaging on a subject comprises obtaining undersampled imaging data, extracting one or more temporal basis functions from the imaging data, extracting one or more preliminary spatial weighting functions from the imaging data, inputting the one or more preliminary spatial weighting functions into a neural network to produce one or more final spatial weighting functions, and multiplying the one or more final spatial weighting functions by the one or more temporal basis functions to generate an image sequence. Each of the temporal basis functions corresponds to at least one time-varying dimension of the subject. Each of the preliminary spatial weighting functions corresponds to a spatially-varying dimension of the subject. Each of the final spatial weighting functions is an artifact-free estimation of the one of the one or more preliminary spatial weighting functions.

A method for performing magnetic resonance imaging on a subject comprises obtaining undersampled imaging data, extracting one or more temporal basis functions from the imaging data, extracting one or more preliminary spatial weighting functions from the imaging data, inputting the one or more preliminary spatial weighting functions into a neural network to produce one or more final spatial weighting functions, and multiplying the one or more final spatial weighting functions by the one or more temporal basis functions to generate an image sequence. Each of the temporal basis functions corresponds to at least one time-varying dimension of the subject. Each of the preliminary spatial weighting functions corresponds to a spatially-varying dimension of the subject. Each of the final spatial weighting functions is an artifact-free estimation of the one of the one or more preliminary spatial weighting functions.

In a method and apparatus for magnetic resonance imaging, in order to improve saturation of magnetic resonance signals during an acquisition sequence, the acquisition sequence includes at least one acquisition cycle, that includes: a preparation pulse set with a number of preparation pulses, a saturation pulse set that is disjoint from the preparation pulse set, with a number of saturation pulses, and a readout block set with a number of readout blocks. The acquisition cycle is temporally divided into a preparation phase and a readout phase, wherein the readout phase is temporally delimited from the preparation phase, and the readout phase follows the preparation phase in the acquisition cycle, and wherein the preparation phase includes at least one preparation pulse of the preparation pulse set, at least one saturation pulse of the saturation pulse set and no readout block of the readout block set, and the readout phase includes at least one saturation pulse of the saturation pulse set and at least one readout block of the readout block set.

A method for determining a scan region to be imaged by a medical image acquisition device is disclosed. The method is performed by at least one processor and comprises obtaining, for each of at least one surgical device, information indicative of one or more poses thereof. The method further includes selecting, based on the one or more poses, at least one anatomical element of a patient's body. The method further includes determining, based on the selected at least one anatomical element, a scan region to be imaged by a medical image acquisition device. An apparatus, a system and a computer program product are also disclosed.

A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to an embodiment includes a processor and a memory. The memory stores processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to receive an operation of setting an application condition concerning a local excitation pulse that is a radio frequency (RF) pulse for local excitation applied to a local region different from an imaging region; generate a waveform of the local excitation pulse based on the application condition; and set an imaging condition such that an index value calculated from the waveform of the local excitation pulse does not exceed a limit value.

A method for producing images of a subject with a MRI system is provided. A radio frequency (RF) excitation field in combination with a slice-select magnetic gradient field along a slice-select direction is provided. At least one readout magnetic field gradient is established along a frequency-encoding direction and at least one phase encoding magnetic field gradient along a phase-encoding direction. The RF field or magnetic field gradient is manipulated along a slice-select direction in order to impart a sequence of phase shifts to the formed echo signals such that image data corresponding to an at least one adjacent slice location is incoherently aliased across a field-of-view (FOV) of a current slice location. Image data is acquired indicative of the formed echo signals. A plurality of images of the subject is reconstructed.