System and method for magnetic resonance fingerprinting with reduced acoustic noise

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10877121-B2
Application number	US-201916416811-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 20, 2019
Priority date	May 18, 2018
Publication date	Dec 29, 2020
Grant date	Dec 29, 2020

Abstract

A method for magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) with reduced acoustic noise includes accessing a MRF dictionary using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, acquiring MRF data using the MRI system and a pulse sequence comprising a plurality of arbitrary gradient waveforms for each gradient axis and random repetition times to control acoustic noise, comparing the MRF data to the MRF dictionary to identify at least one parameter of the MRF data and generating a report indicating the at least one parameter of the MRF data.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) with reduced acoustic noise comprising:
accessing a MRF dictionary using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system;
acquiring MRF data using the MRI system and a pulse sequence comprising a plurality of arbitrary gradient waveforms for each gradient axis and random repetition times to control acoustic noise;
comparing the MRF data to the MRF dictionary to identify at least one parameter of the MRF data; and
generating a report indicating the at least one parameter of the MRF data.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein acquiring MRF data using the MRI system and the pulse sequence further comprises generating each of the plurality of arbitrary gradient waveforms based at least on a predetermined maximum gradient strength.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein acquiring MRF data using the MRI system and the pulse sequence further comprises generating each of the plurality of arbitrary gradient waveforms based at least on a predetermined maximum gradient slew rate.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein at least one parameter of the arbitrary gradient waveforms for a gradient axis is varied in at least two repetition times.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the at least one parameter is varied in each repletion time.

6. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the at least one parameter is a gradient waveform shape.

7. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the at least one parameter is a duration of the gradient waveform.

8. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the at least one parameter is an amplitude of the gradient waveform.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of arbitrary gradient waveforms for a gradient axis is a half-sine waveform.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of arbitrary gradient waveforms for a gradient axis is a balanced and smoothly varying waveform.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the pulse sequence further comprises a variable rate selective excitation (VERSE) radio frequency (RF) pulse.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the pulse sequence further comprises at least one of a plurality of random RF pulse durations, a plurality of random slice encoding times or a plurality of random readout times.

13. A magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) system comprising:
a magnet system configured to generate a polarizing magnetic field about at least a portion of a subject;
a magnetic gradient system including a plurality of magnetic gradient coils configured to apply at least one magnetic gradient field to the polarizing magnetic field;
a radio frequency (RF) system configured to apply an RF field to the subject and to receive magnetic resonance signals from the subject using a coil array; and
a computer system programmed to:
access a MRF dictionary;
acquire MRF data using a pulse sequence to control the magnet gradient system and the RF system, the pulse sequence comprising a plurality of arbitrary gradient waveforms for each gradient axis and random repetition times to control acoustic noise;
compare the MRF data to the MRF dictionary to identify at least one parameter of the MRF data; and
generate a report indicating the at least one parameter of the MRF data.

14. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the computer system is further programmed to generate each of the plurality of arbitrary gradient waveforms based at least on a predetermined maximum gradient strength.

15. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the computer system is further programmed to generate each of the plurality of arbitrary gradient waveforms based at least on a predetermined maximum slew rate.

16. The method according to claim 13 , wherein at least one parameter of the arbitrary gradient waveforms for a gradient axis is varied in at least two repetition times.

17. The method according to claim 16 , wherein the at least one parameter is varied in each repletion time.

18. The method according to claim 16 , wherein the at least one parameter is a gradient waveform shape.

19. The method according to claim 16 , wherein the at least one parameter is a duration of the gradient waveform.

20. The method according to claim 16 , wherein the at least one parameter is an amplitude of the gradient waveform.

21. The method according to claim 13 , wherein at least one of the plurality of arbitrary gradient waveforms for a gradient axis is a half-sine waveform.

22. The method according to claim 13 , wherein at least one of the plurality of arbitrary gradient waveforms for a gradient axis is a balanced and smoothly varying waveform.

23. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the pulse sequence further comprises a variable rate selective excitation (VERSE) radio frequency (RF) pulse.

24. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the pulse sequence further comprises at least one of a plurality of random RF pulse durations, a plurality of random slice encoding times or a plurality of random readout times.

Assignees

• Univ Case Western Reserve

Inventors

• Ma Dan
• Griswold Mark A

Classifications

• G01R33/4828

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

• G01R33/3854

  means for active and/or passive vibration damping or acoustical noise suppression in gradient magnet coil systems · CPC title

• G01R33/5608 Primary

  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

• G01R33/50

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

• G01R33/288 Primary

  Provisions within MR facilities for enhancing safety during MR, e.g. reduction of the specific absorption rate [SAR], detection of ferromagnetic objects in the scanner room · CPC title