G01R33/56366

System and method for accelerated, time-resolved imaging

A system and method for reconstructing a series of images of a subject includes acquiring medical image data from the subject with a medical imaging system and reconstructing a series of images of the subject from the acquired medical image data set. The reconstructing includes enforcing general adherence to a non-patient-specific signal model that describes a dependency of image intensity values on at least one variable that is associated with a physical or physiological property by constraining reconstruction of individual images in the series of images using the non-patient-specific model. The reconstructing also includes preserving information in the series of images that deviate from the non-patient-specific model by controlling a requirement of consistency with the non-patient-specific model.

SYSTEMS AND RELATED METHODS FOR RAPIDLY MOVING MATERIALS INTO AND OUT OF A CRYOGENIC ENVIRONMENT
20170269180 · 2017-09-21 ·

Disclosed herein is a device defining a generally closed volume therein, henceforth known as a “shuttle”, not permanently fixed to a probe or other surface inside the cryostat, into which gas and/or liquid—most preferably helium gas or liquid—can pass into or out of in a controlled and predictable manner. The passage of gas or liquid into the shuttle is preferably via a porous barrier so that sterile conditions can be maintained in the interior of the shuttle.

SYNCHRONIZED MULTI-MODULE PULSED ARTERIAL SPIN LABELED MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING
20170258409 · 2017-09-14 ·

A magnetic resonance imaging system may include a magnet, gradient coils, an RF pulse transmitter, an RF receiver that receives MR signals from tissue that has been exposed to RF pulses, gradient fields, and a magnetic field, and a computer that includes a processor. The computer may have a configuration that: causes the RF pulse transmitter and gradient coils to emit multiple labeling pulses at predetermined labeling times directed to blood in a subject; causes the RF pulse transmitter, gradient coils, and magnet to generate MR signals directed to tissue at one or more spatial locations within the subject that receives the blood; causes the RF receiver to receive MR signals emitted by the tissue at predetermined imaging times; generates an image of the tissue based on the received MR signals; repeats the foregoing four actions one or more times; and generates information indicative of perfusion within the tissue based on the generated images.

Fast analysis method for non-invasive imaging of blood flow using vessel-encoded arterial spin labelling

Arterial spin labelling (ASL) MRI offers a non-invasive means to create blood-borne contrast in vivo for dynamic angiographic imaging. By spatial modulation of the ASL process it is possible to uniquely label individual arteries over a series of measurements, allowing each to be separately identified in the resulting images. This separation requires appropriate analysis for which a general framework has previously been proposed. Here the general framework is modified for fast analysis of non-invasive imaging of blood flow using vessel encoded arterial spin labelling (VE-ASL). This specifically addresses the issues of computational speed of the analysis and the robustness required to deal with real patient data. The modification applies various approaches for estimation of one or more parameters that change the way a vessel, for example an artery, is encoded to provide the fast analysis.

MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING APPARATUS

A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to an embodiment includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry performs at least one of data collection for collecting first data of an imaging region of a subject at a plurality of time intervals after a tag pulse is applied to fluid flowing into the imaging region, and data collection for collecting second data of the imaging region by differing at least one of applying or not-applying the tag pulse and a position of the applying. The processing circuitry performs phase correction for at least one of the first data and the second data by using data in which the longitudinal magnetization of the fluid is a positive value, to generate an image for each time phase.

MRI involving the acquisition of an angiography weighted image and of a perfusion weighted image

The present invention provides a method for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of a subject of interest (120) using arterial spin labeling, comprising the steps of performing a labeling module (200) by applying magnetic and/or radio frequency (RF) fields to the subject of interest (120) for labeling arterial blood in at least a labeling region (144) thereof, performing a first readout module (202) to obtain first MR information of the subject of interest (120) in a region of interest (142) using first parameters, performing a second readout module (204) to obtain second MR information of the subject of interest (120) in a region of interest (142) using second parameters, and performing MR image generation of a region of interest (142) based on the first and second MR information, wherein the first and second parameters of the first and second readout module (202, 204) are chosen to be different parameters. The invention also provides a MR imaging system (110) adapted to perform the above method and a software package for upgrading a MR imaging system (110), whereby the software package contains instructions for controlling the MR imaging system (110) according to the above method.

Off-resonance correction for pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling

Systems and methods are provided to incorporate an off-resonance correction into the pulse labeling train of PCASL/VEPCASL. In one or more aspects, the systems and methods are based on a method for generating an encoding scheme for any number and arrangement of blood vessels. The off-resonance correction can be incorporated into the generation of optimized encodings to acquire arterial spin labeling (ASL) data, such as PCASL and VEPCASL data.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PERFUSING A HUMAN PLACENTA-BASED MRI PHANTOM

Provided herein are systems and methods for development and use of a perfusion apparatus comprising a biological phantom created from an ex vivo placenta. In some embodiments, a system is provided for perfusing an ex vivo placenta to be imaged using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device, the system comprising a chamber configured to house the ex vivo placenta therein, the chamber including a first partition separating the chamber into a first portion and a second portion, wherein the ex vivo placenta is housed at least partially in the first portion, and at least one first inlet disposed in the second portion for receiving at least one first tube, the at least one first tube being configured to couple at least one first pump to a fetal compartment of the ex vivo placenta when present in the chamber.

Systems and method of precision functional mapping-guided interventional planning

A method of performing personalized neuromodulation on a subject is provided. The method includes acquiring functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data of a brain of the subject. The method also includes calculating functional connectivity of the brain between a voxel in a subcortical region of the brain and a voxel in a cortical region of the brain, based on the fMRI data. The method also includes identifying a target location in the brain to be targeted by neuromodulation based on the calculated functional connectivity.

Multiband spiral cardiac MRI with non-cartesian reconstruction methods

A computerized method of reconstructing acquired magnetic resonance image (MRI) data to produce a series of output images includes acquiring a multiband k-space data set from a plurality of multiband slices of spiral MRI data; simultaneously acquiring a single band k-space data set comprising respective single band spiral image slices that are each associated with a respective one of the multiband slices in the multiband k-space data set; using the single band k-space data set, for each individual multiband slice, calculating a respective calibration kernel to apply to the multi-band k-space data set for each individual multiband slice; separating each individual multiband slice from the multiband k space data set by phase demodulating the multi-band k-space data using multiband phase demodulation operators corresponding to the individual multiband slice and convolving phase demodulated multi-band k-space data with a selected convolution operator to form a gridded set of the multi-band k-space data corresponding to the individual multiband slice.