Method and magnetic resonance apparatus to support planning of a magnetic resonance examination on a patient

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10684338-B2
Application number	US-201815903472-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 23, 2018
Priority date	Feb 24, 2017
Publication date	Jun 16, 2020
Grant date	Jun 16, 2020

Abstract

In a method and magnetic resonance apparatus to support planning of a magnetic resonance examination on a patient with the magnetic resonance apparatus, a planning image is displayed and at least one graphic protocol object is superimposed thereon for a user. Information is thereby shown to the user as to whether at least one graphic protocol object is displayed outside the section of the planning image.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method to support planning of a magnetic resonance (MR) examination of a subject with an MR apparatus comprising:
providing a computer with a planning image that comprises a partial region of a subject to be examined in a magnetic resonance examination with a magnetic resonance apparatus;
at a display screen in communication with said computer, displaying a section of the planning image;
with said computer, superimposing at least one graphic protocol object on the displayed planning image at said display screen and thereby depicting said at least one graphic protocol object at said display screen so that it can be seen whether, and to what extent, the displayed graphic protocol object is inside the displayed section of the planning image;
in said computer, generating relative size information for said graphic protocol object dependent on at least one of a size and a position of the graphic protocol object in relation to the section of the planning image;
from said computer, causing the generated relative size information to be shown in the displayed planning image at the display screen;
in said computer, linking display of said relative size information at said display screen to an input command that can be provided as an input into the computer; and
formulating said input command as an activatable input command and, when said input command is activated, adjusting the section of the planning image at said display screen to at least one of a size or position of said at least one graphic protocol object displayed at said display screen.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising generating said at least one graphic protocol object in said computer as slice information for a slice of the examination subject from which MR data are to be acquired in said MR examination.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising generating said relative size information so as to indicate at said display screen whether the section of the planning image is sufficient in order to completely show said at least one graphic protocol object at said display screen.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising displaying the adjusted section of the planning image at said display screen together with the complete graphic protocol object.

5. A magnetic resonance (MR) apparatus comprising:
an MR data acquisition scanner;
a computer provided with a planning image that comprises a partial region of a subject to be examined in a magnetic resonance examination with the magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner,
a display screen in communication with said computer, at which said computer is configured to display a section of the planning image;
said computer being configured to superimpose at least one graphic protocol object on the displayed planning image at said display screen and thereby depict said at least one graphic protocol object at said display screen so that it can be seen whether, and to what extent, the displayed graphic protocol object is inside the displayed section of the planning image;
said computer being configured to generate relative size information for said graphic protocol object dependent on at least one of a size and a position of the graphic protocol object in relation to the section of the planning image;
said computer being configured to cause the generated relative size information to be shown in the displayed planning image at the display screen;
said computer being configured to link display of said relative size information at said display screen to an input command that can be provided as an input into the computer; and
said computer being configured to formulate said input command as an activatable input command and, when said input command is activated, adjust the section of the planning image at said display screen to at least one of a size or position of said at least one graphic protocol object displayed at said display screen.

6. A non-transitory, computer-readable data storage medium encoded with programming instructions, said storage medium being loaded into a computer of a magnetic resonance (MR) apparatus having an MR data acquisition scanner, and said programming instructions causing said computer to:
receive a planning image that comprises a partial region of a subject to be examined in a magnetic resonance examination with the magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner,
at a display screen in communication with said computer, display a section of the planning image;
superimpose at least one graphic protocol object on the displayed planning image at said display screen and thereby depicting said at least one graphic protocol object at said display screen so that it can be seen whether, and to what extent, the displayed graphic protocol object is inside the displayed section of the planning image;
generate relative size information for said graphic protocol object dependent on at least one of a size and a position of the graphic protocol object in relation to the section of the planning image;
cause the generated relative size information to be shown in the displayed planning image at the display screen;
link display of said relative size information at said display screen to an input command that can be provided as an input into the computer; and
formulate said input command as an activatable input command and, when said input command is activated, adjusting the section of the planning image at said display screen to at least one of a size or position of said at least one graphic protocol object displayed at said display screen.

Assignees

• Siemens Healthcare Gmbh

Inventors

• Hengelein Bernd
• Jattke Kirstin
• Krellmann Christof

Classifications

• G01R33/546

  Interface between the MR system and the user, e.g. for controlling the operation of the MR system or for the design of pulse sequences · CPC title

• G01R33/543 Primary

  Control of the operation of the MR system, e.g. setting of acquisition parameters prior to or during MR data acquisition, dynamic shimming, use of one or more scout images for scan plane prescription (G01R33/546 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01R33/5608

  Data processing and visualization specially adapted for MR, e.g. for feature analysis and pattern recognition on the basis of measured MR data, segmentation of measured MR data, edge contour detection on the basis of measured MR data, for enhancing measured MR data in terms of signal-to-noise ratio by means of noise filtering or apodization, for enhancing measured MR data in terms of resolution by means for deblurring, windowing, zero filling, or generation of gray-scaled images, colour-coded images or images displaying vectors instead of pixels (image data processing or generation, in general G06T) · CPC title

• G01R33/4833

  using spatially selective excitation of the volume of interest, e.g. selecting non-orthogonal or inclined slices · CPC title

• A61B5/055 Primary

  involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging · CPC title