Magnetic resonance apparatus and method for positioning an object on a patient positioning device within an isocenter of a magnetic resonance scanner

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10791959-B2
Application number	US-201615160356-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 20, 2016
Priority date	May 20, 2015
Publication date	Oct 6, 2020
Grant date	Oct 6, 2020

Abstract

A magnetic resonance apparatus has a scanner that has a patient receiving area, a position data acquisition unit, and a patient examination table of a patient positioning device. The table is movable within the patient receiving area. The position data acquisition unit detects a subarea, including an isocenter, of the patient receiving area, and provides position data to a speed regulating processor that regulates the speed of the table of patient positioning device depending on this position data.

First claim

We claim as our invention:

1. A magnetic resonance (MR) apparatus comprising:
an MR data acquisition scanner having a patient receiving area therein, said patient receiving area having an isocenter;
a patient positioning device having a patient examination table that is movable within said patient receiving area;
a position data acquisition detector that is separate from the MR data acquisition scanner, the position data acquisition detector having a detection field of view, which includes said isocenter, in which said position data acquisition detector detects position data associated with an object that is positioned on a patient positioned on the patient examination table, the object being a physical ancillary unit associated with the MR apparatus that is separate from the patient, the object including a predetermined characteristic pattern formed thereon that is detectable by the position data acquisition detector; and
a speed regulating processor, provided with detected position data from the position data acquisition detector, configured to regulate a speed of movement of said patient examination table in said patient receiving area dependent on said detected position data,
wherein the predetermined characteristic pattern formed on the object indicates a center and an edge region of the physical ancillary unit associated with the MR apparatus.

2. An MR apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said MR data acquisition scanner comprises a radio-frequency (RF) antenna that at least partially surrounds said patient receiving area and wherein said position data acquisition detector is situated on said RF antenna.

3. An MR apparatus as claimed in claim 2 wherein said RF antenna comprises a housing that also at least partially surrounds said patient receiving area, and wherein said position data acquisition detector is situated at a location relative to said housing selected from the group consisting of a location within said housing, and a location at a side of said housing facing away from said patient receiving area.

4. An MR apparatus as claimed in claim 2 wherein said RF antenna has a longitudinal extent along said MR data acquisition scanner, and wherein said position data acquisition detector is situated in a center of a direction of said longitudinal extent of said RF antenna.

5. An MR apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said position data acquisition detector comprises at least one camera.

6. An MR apparatus as claimed in claim 5 wherein said at least one camera comprises a lens selected from the group consisting of a wide-angle lens and a fish eye lens.

7. An MR apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said speed regulating unit is configured to regulate the speed of said patient examination table dependent on a distance of the object, as detected by said position data acquisition detector, relative to said isocenter.

8. An MR apparatus as claimed in claim 7 wherein said speed regulating processor is configured to regulate said speed of said patient examination table so as to be slower as the distance of the object relative to the isocenter becomes smaller.

9. An MR apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic pattern included as part of the object includes multiple marker elements arranged in distributed fashion on the surface of the object.

10. An MR apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the position data acquisition detector is configured to begin acquisition of the position data upon one of the multiple marker elements entering the detection field of view.

11. An MR apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the speed regulating processor is configured to execute a pattern recognition algorithm to identify the object via the characteristic pattern in accordance with a shape of a local radio-frequency body antenna.

12. An MR apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the position data acquisition detector is configured to determine, using the detected position data obtained via the predetermined characteristic pattern formed on the object, a position of the patient examination table for positioning the physical ancillary unit in a region of the isocenter of the patient receiving area using the detected position data.

13. An MR apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the predetermined characteristic pattern formed on the object includes multiple marker elements arranged in distributed fashion on the surface of the object,
one or more first marker elements from among the multiple marker elements indicate the center region of the physical ancillary unit,
one or more second marker elements from among the multiple marker elements indicate the edge region of the physical ancillary unit, and
the one or more first marker elements are different than the one or more first marker elements.

14. A method for positioning an object on a movable patient examination table of a patient positioning device, relative to an isocenter of a patient receiving area of a magnetic resonance (MR) data acquisition scanner, said method comprising:
placing an object that is positioned on a patient positioned on the movable patient examination table of the patient positioning device, the object being a physical ancillary unit associated with the MR apparatus that is separate from the patient, the object including a predetermined characteristic pattern formed thereon;
operating the patient positioning device with a speed regulating processor to move the patient examination table, with the object thereon, into the patient receiving area at an initial speed;
detecting position data associated with the object with a position data acquisition detector that is separate from the MR data acquisition scanner by detecting the characteristic pattern on the object, while the patient examination table with the object thereon is moving in the patient receiving area;
in said speed regulating processor, evaluating the acquired position data to determine a distance of the object on the patient examination table in relation to the isocenter; and
from said speed regulating processor, operating the patient positioning device to regulate the speed of movement of the patient examination table dependent on said distance of the object relative to the isocenter, by adjusting said initial speed,
wherein the predetermined characteristic pattern formed on the object indicates a center and an edge region of the physical ancillary unit associated with the MR apparatus.

15. A method as claimed in claim 14 comprising regulating said speed of said patient examination table to be less than or equal to said initial speed.

16. A method as claimed in claim 14 comprising regulating said speed of said patient examination table so as to limit the speed of said patient examination table to a threshold speed as soon as said object that is positioned on the patient positioned on the patient examination table is situated within the isocenter.

17. A method as claimed in claim 14 comprising regulating the speed of the patient examination table to be slower as the distance of the object with respect to the isocenter becomes smaller.

18. A method as claimed in claim 14 comprising automatically effecting said movement of the patient examination table into the patient receiving area at said initial speed.

19. A method as claimed in claim 14 comprising activating operation of said position data acquisition detector as soon as said patient examination table moves into said patient receiving area.

20. A method as claimed in claim 14 comprising in said speed regulating processor, executing a pattern rec

Assignees

• Siemens Healthcare Gmbh

Inventors

• Gall Peter
• Greiser Andreas
• Paul Dominik
• Schröter Steffen
• Thöne Jens
• Wolf Felix

Classifications

• A61B5/055 Primary

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

• A61B5/704 Primary

  Tables · CPC title

• G01R33/283

  Intercom or optical viewing arrangements, structurally associated with NMR apparatus · CPC title

• G06T7/0012

  Biomedical image inspection · CPC title

• G01R33/307

  specially adapted for moving the sample relative to the MR system, e.g. spinning mechanisms, flow cells or means for positioning the sample inside a spectrometer · CPC title