Systems and methods for waveform determination in magnetic resonance imaging

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11353527-B2
Application number	US-202016919119-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 2, 2020
Priority date	Jul 19, 2019
Publication date	Jun 7, 2022
Grant date	Jun 7, 2022

Abstract

The present disclosure provides systems and methods for magnetic resonance imaging. The method may include obtaining a pulse sequence for scanning an object, obtaining a tolerance parameter associated with the pulse sequence, determining, based on the pulse sequence and the tolerance parameter, a target waveform for scanning the object, and causing an MRI device to scan the object based on the target waveform.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), comprising:
at least one non-transitory storage device storing executable instructions, and
at least one processor in communication with the at least one non-transitory storage device, when executing the executable instructions, causing the system to perform operations including:
obtaining a pulse sequence for scanning an object;
determining, based on the pulse sequence, an initial waveform;
obtaining a tolerance parameter associated with the pulse sequence, wherein the tolerance parameter includes at least one of a scanning time, an acoustic noise expectation, or a specific absorption rate (SAR);
determining a target waveform for scanning the object by adjusting, based on the tolerance parameter, the initial waveform; and
generating an image by causing an MRI device to scan the object based on the target waveform.

2. A magnetic resonance (MR) apparatus comprising:
an MR scanner including a gradient coil system;
a user interface configured to enable a user to input a tolerance parameter associated with a pulse sequence, wherein the tolerance parameter includes at least one of a scanning time, an acoustic noise expectation, or a specific absorption rate (SAR);
a processing device configured to determine an initial waveform; based on the pulse sequence and determine a target waveform for scanning an object by adjusting the initial waveform based on the tolerance parameter; and
a control device configured to cause the MR scanner to generate an image by scanning the object according to the target waveform, wherein a gradient field corresponding to the target waveform is produced in the MR scanner by the gradient coil system of the MR scanner.

3. A method implemented on a computing device including at least one processor and at least one non-transitory storage medium, and a communication platform connected to a network, the method comprising:
obtaining a pulse sequence for scanning an object;
determining, based on the pulse sequence, an initial waveform;
obtaining a tolerance parameter associated with the pulse sequence, wherein the tolerance parameter includes at least one of a scanning time, an acoustic noise expectation, or a specific absorption rate (SAR);
determining a target waveform for scanning the object by adjusting, based on the tolerance parameter, the initial waveform; and
generating an image by causing an MRI device to scan the object based on the target waveform.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the pulse sequence includes at least one of a radiofrequency (RF) pulse sequence or a gradient pulse sequence.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determining a target waveform for scanning the object by adjusting, based on the tolerance parameter, the initial waveform includes:
determining the target waveform based on a relationship among the pulse sequence, the tolerance parameter, and the target waveform.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determining a target waveform for scanning the object by adjusting, based on the tolerance parameter, the initial waveform includes:
querying a waveform database based on the pulse sequence and the tolerance parameter; and
determining the target waveform based on a query result.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determining, based on the pulse sequence, an initial waveform includes:
determining the initial waveform based on a relationship between the pulse sequence and the initial waveform.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the determining, based on the pulse sequence, an initial waveform includes:
obtaining one or more first features of the pulse sequence, the one or more first features corresponding to the initial waveform;
obtaining one or more second features of each of multiple candidate reference sequences from a waveform library;
determining, based on the one or more first features and the one or more second features, a matching degree between the pulse sequence and each of the multiple candidate reference sequences; and
determining, based on the matching degree, the initial waveform.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the determining, based on the matching degree, the initial waveform includes:
identifying a highest matching degree among the matching degrees between the pulse sequence and the multiple candidate reference sequences; and
determining, based on a reference waveform corresponding to the reference sequence of the highest matching degree, the initial waveform.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the adjusting, based on the tolerance parameter, the initial waveform includes:
adjusting one or more waveform parameters of the initial waveform based on the tolerance parameter, wherein the one or more waveform parameters of the initial waveform includes at least one of a pulse amplitude, a pulse phase, a slope, or a profile of the initial waveform.

11. The system of claim 4 , wherein the tolerance parameter includes the acoustic noise expectation corresponding to the gradient pulse sequence, and the at least one processor is further configured to cause the system to perform additional operations including:
determining an estimated scanning time for scanning the object based on the target waveform;
determining whether the estimated scanning time satisfies a compliance condition; and
in response to determining that the estimated scanning time fails to satisfy the compliance condition,
adjusting the acoustic noise expectation corresponding to the gradient pulse sequence.

12. The system of claim 4 , wherein the tolerance parameter includes the scanning time corresponding to the gradient pulse sequence, and the at least one processor is further configured to cause the system to perform additional operations including:
determining an estimated acoustic noise corresponding to the gradient pulse sequence based on the target waveform;
determining whether the estimated acoustic noise corresponding to the gradient pulse sequence satisfies a compliance condition; and
in response to determining that the estimated acoustic noise corresponding to the gradient pulse sequence fails to satisfy the compliance condition,
adjusting the scanning time corresponding to the gradient pulse sequence.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the target waveform includes at least one gradient waveform, wherein the causing the MRI device to scan the object based on the target waveform includes:
initiating a gradient channel of the MRI device corresponding to the at least one gradient waveform, the gradient channel including at least one of an X-axis gradient channel, a Y-axis gradient channel, or a Z-axis gradient channel; and
transmitting the at least one gradient waveform using the corresponding gradient channel.

14. The system of claim 4 , wherein the tolerance parameter includes the specific absorption rate (SAR) corresponding to the RF pulse sequence, and the at least one processor is further configured to cause the system to perform additional operations including:
determining an estimated scanning time for scanning the object based on the target waveform;
determining whether the estimated scanning time satisfies a compliance condition; and
in response to determining that the estimated scanning time fails to satisfy the compliance condition,
adjusting the SAR.

15. The system of claim 4 , wherein the tolerance parameter includes the scanning time corresponding to the RF pulse sequence, and the at least one processor is further configured to cause the system to perform additional operations including:
determining an estimated SAR corresponding t

Assignees

• Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare Co Ltd

Inventors

• Wang Chaohong
• Li Guobin

Classifications

• A61B5/055

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

• A61B5/0044

  for the heart · 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

• A61B5/0042

  for the brain · CPC title

• G01R33/5673

  Gating or triggering based on a physiological signal other than an MR signal, e.g. ECG gating or motion monitoring using optical systems for monitoring the motion of a fiducial marker · CPC title