G01R33/56554

Parallel MR imaging with Nyquist ghost correction for EPI
10401456 · 2019-09-03 · ·

A method of parallel MR imaging includes subjecting the portion of the body (10) to an imaging sequence of at least one RF pulse and a plurality of switched magnetic field gradients. The MR signals are acquired in parallel via a plurality of RF coils (11, 12, 13) having different spatial sensitivity profiles within the examination volume. The method further includes deriving an estimated ghost level map from the acquired MR signals and from spatial sensitivity maps of the RF coils (11, 12, 13), and reconstructing a MR image from the acquired MR signals, the spatial sensitivity maps, and the estimated ghost level map.

Parallel multi-slice MR imaging with suppression of side band artefacts
10401461 · 2019-09-03 · ·

An object (10) placed in an examination volume of a MR device (1) is subject to an imaging sequence including multi-slice RF pulses for simultaneously exciting two or more spatially separate image slices. MR signals are received in parallel via a set of RF coils (11, 12, 13) having different spatial sensitivity profiles within the examination volume. An MR image is reconstructed for each image slice from the acquired MR signals. MR signal contributions from the different image slices are separated on the basis of the spatial sensitivity profiles of the RF coils (11, 12, 13). Side-band artifacts, namely MR signal contributions from regions excited by one or more side-bands of the multi-slice RF pulses, are suppressed in the reconstructed MR images on the basis of the spatial sensitivity profiles of the RF coils (11, 12, 13).

Method for correcting phase offsets in quantitative chemical shift encoded magnetic resonance imaging

Systems and methods for correcting phase errors in chemical shift encoded data are described. The technique is self-calibrated, without the need for specialized calibration data, and therefore may enable fat and iron quantification using data from clinical and research sites that do not have specialized pulse sequences.

MRI using spatially adaptive regularization for image reconstruction
10379188 · 2019-08-13 · ·

A magnetic resonance (MR) imaging system may include at least one controller which may acquire echo information of a region of interest (ROI). The echo information may include first image information suitable for reconstructing at least part of a first image at a selected contrast. The MR imaging system can obtain previously-reconstructed image information of one or more previously-reconstructed images having a contrast different than the selected contrast; extract information from the previously-reconstructed image information; determine spatially adaptive regularization weights for regularized reconstruction based upon the extracted information; and/or reconstruct the first image in formation in accordance with the spatially adaptive regularization weights and the echo information.

Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus

An MRI system according to an embodiment includes an MRI sequence controller and an MRI system controller. Serving as a prescan unit, the MRI sequence controller performs a prescan for acquiring a sensitivity distribution of a coil. Serving as a main scan unit, the MRI sequence controller performs a main scan for acquiring signals of a magnetic resonance image. Serving as a corrector, the MRI system controller corrects the sensitivity distribution in accordance with a distortion that is contained in the magnetic resonance image and that results from the performing of the main scan. Serving as a generator, the MRI system controller generates an output magnetic resonance image using the corrected sensitivity distribution.

BO-CORRECTED SENSITIVITY ENCODING MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING

The invention provides for a magnetic resonance imaging system (200, 300, 400) comprising a radio-frequency system (216, 214) comprising multiple coil elements (214) for acquiring magnetic resonance data (264). The magnetic resonance imaging system further comprises a memory (250) for storing machine executable instructions (260) and pulse sequence commands (262). The pulse sequence commands are configured for controlling the magnetic resonance imaging system to acquire the magnetic resonance data according to a SENSE imaging protocol. The magnetic resonance imaging system further comprises a processor (244) for controlling the magnetic resonance imaging system. Execution of the machine executable instructions causes the processor to: control (500) the magnetic resonance imaging system to acquire the magnetic resonance data using the pulse sequence commands; reconstruct (502) a set of folded magnetic resonance images (266) from the magnetic resonance data; calculate (504) a voxel deformation map (270) from a static magnetic field (B0) inhomogeneity map; calculate (506) a set of unfolding matrices (274) using a least partially a coil sensitivity matrix (272) for the multiple coil elements, wherein the set of unfolding matrices comprises at least one modified unfolding matrix, wherein the at least one modified unfolding matrix is calculated at least partially using the a coil sensitivity matrix and the voxel deformation map; and calculate (508) undistorted magnetic resonance image data (276) using the set of folded magnetic resonance images and the set of unfolding matrices.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMAGE ARTIFACT REDUCTION IN SIMULTANEOUS MULTI-SLICE MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING

A magnetic resonance imaging system includes an array radiofrequency coil and processing circuitry operatively linked to the array radiofrequency coil and configured to receive output signals from the array radiofrequency coil commensurate with a simultaneous multi-slice magnetic imaging characterized by simultaneous multi-slice parameters, estimate distorted regions of the image volume using either data obtained via a pre-scan or a pre-computed model, minimize overlap of the distorted regions with image voxels representing tissue to obtain optimized values of the simultaneous multi-slice parameters, configuring and executing the simultaneous multi-slice imaging sequence based on the optimized values of the simultaneous multi-slice parameters, and reconstruct simultaneous multi-slice images with minimized artifacts.

METHOD FOR VARYING UNDERSAMPLING DIMENSION FOR ACCELERATING MULTIPLE-ACQUISITION MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING AND DEVICE FOR THE SAME
20190219654 · 2019-07-18 ·

Provided is an MRI image generation method including: acquiring first phase encoding lines obtained by undersampling along a first direction using an MRI device; acquiring second phase encoding lines obtained by undersampling in a second direction different from the first direction using the MRI device; generating a first MRI image based on the first phase encoding lines and the second phase encoding lines; and generating a second MRI image different from the first MRI image based on the first phase encoding lines and the second phase encoding lines.

Method and apparatus for the correction of magnetic resonance scan data
10310043 · 2019-06-04 · ·

In a method and magnetic resonance (MR) apparatus for correcting MR scan data, an MR scanner is operated to acquire first and second correction data sets respectively from first and second sub-volumes of a correction volume, by successive executions of an echo planar imaging sequence. The MR scanner is also operated to acquire third and fourth correction data sets respectively from third and fourth correction sub-volumes, also by successive executions of the echo planar imaging sequence. A first item of correction information is ascertained from the first and second correction data sets, and a second item of correction information is ascertained from the third and fourth correction data sets. The first and second items of correction information are then used to correct scan data, also acquired with the MR scanner.

MRI apparatus that continuously generates and collects multiple echo K-space data from which odd and/or even numbered collected groups of K-space data are extracted and separately processed

A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to an embodiment includes sequence controlling circuitry and image generating circuitry. The sequence controlling circuitry is configured to continuously apply, after application of an excitation pulse, a readout gradient magnetic field while inverting polarity to control execution of a pulse sequence that continuously generates multiple echo signals and configured to collect echo signals for multiple channels by parallel imaging. The image generating circuitry is configured to extract at least one of an even-number-th collected echo signal group and an odd-number-th collected echo signal group from multiple echo signals continuously collected and configured to generate at least one of an even-number-th image and an odd-number-th image using the extracted echo signal group for the multiple channels and sensitivity distribution for the multiple channels.