Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) fingerprinting

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10416259-B2
Application number	US-201414270389-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 6, 2014
Priority date	Mar 18, 2011
Publication date	Sep 17, 2019
Grant date	Sep 17, 2019

Abstract

Apparatus, methods, and other embodiments associated with NMR fingerprinting are described. One example NMR apparatus includes an NMR logic configured to repetitively and variably sample a (k, t, E) space associated with an object to acquire a set of NMR signals. Members of the set of NMR signals are associated with different points in the (k, t, E) space. Sampling is performed with t and/or E varying in a non-constant way. The varying parameters may include flip angle, echo time, RF amplitude, and other parameters. The NMR apparatus may also include a signal logic configured to produce an NMR signal evolution from the NMR signals, a matching logic configured to compare a signal evolution to a known, simulated or predicted signal evolution, and a characterization logic configured to characterize a resonant species in the object as a result of the signal evolution comparisons.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for exciting nuclear spins in a volume in an object, the method comprising:
controlling a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) apparatus to apply radio frequency (RF) energy to the volume in a single pulse sequence that includes a series of at least three different variable sequence blocks, where a variable sequence block includes one or more excitation phases, one or more readout phases, and one or more waiting phases,
where variable sequence blocks variably sample a (k, t, E) space associated with an object to acquire a set of NMR signals, where members of the set of NMR signals are associated with different points in the (k, t, E) space, where t is time and E includes at least T1, T2, and one other relaxation parameter, T1 being spin-lattice relaxation, and T2 being spin-spin relaxation, and where one or more of, t, and E, vary non-linearly,
where the RF energy applied during a variable sequence block causes nuclear spins in the volume to produce NMR signals,
where a member of the series of variable sequence blocks differs from at least one other member of the series of variable sequence blocks in at least two sequence block parameters;

acquiring the NMR signals; and
producing a parameter map of the object from the NMR signals.

2. The method of claim 1 , where the single pulse sequence includes a series of at least four different variable sequence blocks.

3. The method of claim 1 , where the single pulse sequence includes a series of at least five different variable sequence blocks.

4. The method of claim 1 , where a member of the series of variable sequence blocks differs from at least one other member of the series of variable sequence blocks in at least three sequence block parameters.

5. The method of claim 1 , where a member of the series of variable sequence blocks differs from at least one other member of the series of variable sequence blocks in at least four sequence block parameters.

6. The method of claim 1 , where a member of the series of variable sequence blocks differs from at least one other member of the series of variable sequence blocks in at least five sequence block parameters.

7. The method of claim 1 , where the sequence block parameters include flip angle.

8. The method of claim 1 , where the sequence block parameters comprise echo time, flip angle, phase encoding, diffusion encoding, flow encoding, RF pulse amplitude, RF pulse phase, number of RF pulses, type of gradient applied between an excitation portion of a sequence block and a readout portion of a sequence block, number of gradients applied between an excitation portion of a sequence block and a readout portion of a sequence block, type of gradient applied between a readout portion of a sequence block and an excitation portion of a sequence block, number of gradients applied between a readout portion of a sequence block and an excitation portion of a sequence block, type of gradient applied during a readout portion of a sequence block, number of gradients applied during a readout portion of a sequence block, amount of RF spoiling, and amount of gradient spoiling.

9. The method of claim 1 , where the sequence block parameters are selected from the group including echo time, flip angle, phase encoding, diffusion encoding, flow encoding, RF pulse amplitude, RF pulse phase, number of RF pulses, type of gradient applied between an excitation portion of a sequence block and a readout portion of a sequence block, number of gradients applied between an excitation portion of a sequence block and a readout portion of a sequence block, type of gradient applied between a readout portion of a sequence block and an excitation portion of a sequence block, number of gradients applied between a readout portion of a sequence block and an excitation portion of a sequence block, type of gradient applied during a readout portion of a sequence block, number of gradients applied during a readout portion of a sequence block, amount of RF spoiling, and amount of gradient spoiling.

10. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
controlling the NMR apparatus to vary one or more of, the amount of time between sequence blocks in the series of variable sequence blocks, the relative amplitude of RF pulses in sequence blocks in the series of variable sequence blocks, and the relative phase of RF pulses in sequence blocks in the series of variable sequence blocks.

11. The method of claim 1 , comprising controlling the NMR apparatus to configure a member of the series of variable sequence blocks as one of, a TrueFISP pulse sequence, a FLASH pulse sequence, and a TSE pulse sequence.

12. The method of claim 1 , where at least one percent of the members of the series of variable sequence blocks are unique.

13. The method of claim 1 , where at least ten percent of the members of the series of variable sequence blocks are unique.

14. The method of claim 1 , comprising: controlling the NMR apparatus to apply members of the series of variable sequence blocks according to a partially random acquisition plan configured to under-sample the object at an under-sampling rate R.

15. The method of claim 14 , where the rate R is greater than two.

16. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
controlling the NMR apparatus to acquire the NMR signals;
controlling the NMR apparatus to compare the acquired NMR signals to one or more known signal evolutions, and
controlling the NMR apparatus to characterize resonant species in the volume as a function of comparing the acquired NMR signals to the one or more known signal evolutions, where characterizing the resonant species comprises simultaneously identifying at least three of: T1 relaxation associated with the resonant species, T2 relaxation associated with the resonant species, off-resonance relaxation associated with the resonant species, and diffusion weighted relaxation associated with the resonant species.

17. The method of claim 16 , where the known signal evolutions include a signal selected from a set of signals described by:

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Assignees

• Univ Case Western Reserve

Inventors

• Griswold Mark
• Seiberlich Nicole
• Ma Dan
• Gulani Vikas

Classifications

• G01R33/56 Primary

  Image enhancement or correction, e.g. subtraction or averaging techniques {, e.g. improvement of signal-to-noise ratio and resolution} · CPC title

• G01R33/50

  based on the determination of relaxation times {, e.g. T1 measurement by IR sequences; T2 measurement by multiple-echo sequences} · CPC title

• G01R33/56341

  Diffusion imaging · CPC title

• G01R33/54

  Signal processing systems, e.g. using pulse sequences {; Generation or control of pulse sequences; Operator console} · CPC title

• G01R33/4828

  Resolving the MR signals of different chemical species, e.g. water-fat imaging · CPC title