Patent classifications
G01R33/56554
Free-Breathing MRI with Motion Compensation
A method for acquiring magnetic resonance imaging data with respiratory motion compensation using one or more motion signals includes acquiring a plurality of gradient-delay-corrected radial readout views of a subject using a free-breathing multi-echo pulse sequence, and sampling a plurality of data points of the gradient-delay-corrected radial readout views to yield a self-gating signal. The self-gating signal is used to determine a plurality of respiratory motion states corresponding to the plurality of gradient-delay-corrected radial readout views. The respiratory motion states are used to correct respiratory motion bias in the gradient-delay-corrected radial readout views, thereby yielding gradient-delay-corrected and motion-compensated multi-echo data. One or more images are reconstructed using the gradient-delay-corrected and motion-compensated multi-echo data.
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DEEP CONVOLUTIONAL NEURAL NET FOR ARTIFACT SUPPRESSION IN DENSE MRI
Suppressing artifacts in MRI image acquisition data includes alternatives to phase cycling by using a Convolutional Neural Network to suppress the artifact-generating echos. A U-NET CNN is trained using phase-cycled artifact-free images for ground truth comparison with received displacement encoded stimulated echo (DENSE) images. The DENSE images include data from a single acquisition with both stimulated (STE) and T1-relaxation echoes. The systems and methods of this disclosure are explained as generating artifact-free images in the ultimate output and avoiding the additional data acquisition needed for phase cycling and shortens the scan time in DENSE MRI.
VARIABLE GAIN AMPLIFICATION FOR LINEARIZATION OF NMR SIGNALS
Various approaches of amplifying an NMR signal in response to a transmitted NMR pulse include estimating the characteristic time associated with the NMR signal; transmitting the NMR pulse to the sample and receiving the NMR signal therefrom; and applying a time-dependent amplifier gain to the received NMR signal based at least in part on the estimated characteristic time.
METHOD FOR OBTAINING AN OPERATING PARAMETER, STORAGE MEDIUM, AND MAGNETIC RESONANCE APPARATUS
A storage medium, a magnetic resonance apparatus, and a method for obtaining an operating parameter of a magnetic resonance apparatus are disclosed herein. The method includes generating of at least one echo train, wherein the generation of an echo train includes: setting a given set of parameters; applying at least one radio frequency excitation pulse; and applying a dephasing gradient in readout direction; and reading out the echo train having at least two echo signals, wherein a readout gradient is applied while reading out the echo signals. The method further includes acquiring at least two echo signals, wherein the set of parameters differs in at least one parameter being used for different echo signals; processing the echo signals line by line to projections; and obtaining the operating parameter using the projections.
Systems and methods for concomitant field correction in magnetic resonance imaging with asymmetric gradients
Systems and methods for performing concomitant field corrections in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems that implement asymmetric magnetic field gradients are provided, in general, the systems and methods described here can correct for the effects of concomitant fields of multiple orders, such as zeroth order, first order, and second order concomitant fields.
Method and systems for reducing artifacts in magnetic resonance imaging
Various methods and systems are provided for ghost artifact reduction in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In one embodiment, a method for an MRI system comprises acquiring a non-phase-encoded reference dataset, calculating phase corrections for spatial orders higher than first order from the non-phase-encoded reference dataset, acquiring a phase-encoded k-space dataset, correcting the phase-encoded k-space dataset with the phase corrections, and reconstructing an image from the corrected phase-encoded k-space dataset. In this way, ghost artifacts caused by phase errors during EPI may be substantially reduced, thereby improving image quality especially when imaging with a large field of view.
Variable gain amplification for linearization of NMR signals
Various approaches of amplifying an NMR signal in response to a transmitted NMR pulse include estimating the characteristic time associated with the NMR signal; transmitting the NMR pulse to the sample and receiving the NMR signal therefrom; and applying a time-dependent amplifier gain to the received NMR signal based at least in part on the estimated characteristic time.
Method for fat characterization using MRI images acquired using a multiple gradient-echo sequence with bipolar gradients
It is proposed a method for post-processing images of an region of interest in a subject, the images being acquired with a magnetic resonance imaging technique, the method for post-processing comprising at least the step of: unwrapping the phase of each image, extracting a complex signal over echo time for at least one pixel of the unwrapped images, and calculating fat characterization parameters by using a fitting technique applied on a model, the model being a function which associates to a plurality of parameters each extracted complex signal, the plurality of parameters comprising at least two fat characterization parameters, the magnitude error and the phase error generated by the use of the bipolar readout gradients, the fitting technique being a non-linear least-square fitting technique using pseudo-random initial conditions.
DUAL-ECHO DIXON-TYPE WATER/FAT SEPARATION MR IMAGING
The invention relates to a method of Dixon-type MR imaging. It is an object of the invention to provide a method that enables efficient and reliable water/fat separation using bipolar readout magnetic field gradients and avoids flow-induced leaking and swapping artifacts. According to the invention, an object (10) is subjected to an imaging sequence, which comprises at least one excitation RF pulse and switched magnetic field gradients, wherein two echo signals, a first echo signal and a second echo signal, are generated at different echo times (TE1, TE2). The echo signals are acquired from the object (10) using bipolar readout magnetic field gradients. A first single echo image is reconstructed from the first echo signals and a second single echo image is reconstructed from the second echo signals. A zero echo time image is computed by extrapolating the phase of the first single echo image at each voxel position to a zero echo time using the phase difference between the first and the second single echo image at the respective voxel position. Flow-induced phase errors are identified and estimated in the zero echo time image, and the phase of the first single echo image is corrected according to the estimated flow-induced phase errors. Finally, a water image and/or a fat image are reconstructed from the echo signals, wherein signal contributions from water and fat to the echo signals are separated using the phase-corrected first single echo image and the second single echo image. Moreover, the invention relates to a MR device (1) and to a computer program to be run on a MR device (1).
Method of removing ghost artifacts from magnetic resonance image, and magnetic resonance apparatus therefor
A method of reconstructing a magnetic resonance image includes receiving echo planar imaging (EPI) data, acquiring an even scan line image and an odd scan line image from k-space data of the EPI data, and reconstructing missing portions of the even scan line image and the odd scan line image.