Magnetic resonance tomography scanner and method for operating with dynamic B0 compensation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11733330-B2
Application number	US-202117168366-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 5, 2021
Priority date	Mar 5, 2020
Publication date	Aug 22, 2023
Grant date	Aug 22, 2023

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a magnetic resonance tomography scanner and to a method for operating the magnetic resonance tomography scanner. The method includes determining a B0 field map. The method further includes determining an excitation of the nuclear spins to be achieved and a spectrally selective excitation pulse for transmission by a transmitter by way of an antenna as a function of the B0 field map. In the method, the excitation pulse is configured here to generate the excitation of the nuclear spins to be achieved in the patient. The excitation pulse is then output by way of the antenna.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for operating a magnetic resonance tomography scanner, the method comprising:
generating, by a field magnet of the magnetic resonance tomography scanner, a B0 field;
providing, by a controller of the magnetic resonance tomography scanner, a B0 field map;
generating, by gradient coils of the magnetic resonance tomography scanner, magnetic gradient fields;
generating, by a transmitter and an antenna of the magnetic resonance tomography scanner, a magnetic alternating field B1 for exciting nuclear spins in a patient;
receiving, a receive antenna and a receiver of the magnetic resonance tomography scanner, a magnetic resonance signal from the patient;
determining, by the controller, an excitation of the nuclear spins to be achieved for an image acquisition sequence;
determining, by the controller, a spectrally selective excitation pulse for transmission by the transmitter via the antenna as a function of the B0 field map, wherein the spectrally selective excitation pulse generates the excitation of the nuclear spins in the patient and achieves predetermined different target magnetizations for the nuclear spins with at least two different Larmor frequencies;
outputting, by the controller, a gradient pulse by way of the gradient coils; and
outputting, by the controller, the spectrally selective excitation pulse by way of the antenna.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a B1 field map,
wherein the determining of the spectrally selective excitation pulse is further determined as a function of the B1 field map.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
acquiring a physiological parameter of the patient,
wherein the spectrally selective excitation pulse is further determined as a function of the physiological parameter of the patient.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the spectrally selective excitation pulse is further configured to achieve a saturation of the nuclear spins as excitation to be achieved.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the spectrally selective excitation pulse is further configured to achieve a saturation of the nuclear spins as excitation to be achieved.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the B0 field map is determined as a function of B0 deviations induced by the patient.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
determining the gradient pulse,
wherein the B0 field map is determined as a function of dynamic effects of the B0 deviations caused by the magnetic gradient fields at a point in time of the spectrally selective excitation pulse, and
wherein the spectrally selective excitation pulse is output during the output of the gradient pulse by way of the gradient coils.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining the gradient pulse,
wherein the B0 field map is determined as a function of dynamic effects of B0 deviations caused by the magnetic gradient fields at a point in time of the spectrally selective excitation pulse, and
wherein the spectrally selective excitation pulse is output during the output of the gradient pulse by way of the gradient coils.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
acquiring a physiological parameter of the patient,
wherein the spectrally selective excitation pulse is determined as a function of the physiological parameter of the patient.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmitter of the magnetic resonance tomography scanner comprises a plurality of transmit channels in signal connection with a plurality of transmit elements of the antenna, and
wherein the spectrally selective excitation pulse has a plurality of components for the plurality of transmit channels.

11. A magnetic resonance tomography scanner comprising:
a controller;
a field magnet for generating a static homogenous magnetic field B0;
gradient coils for generating magnetic gradient fields;
a transmitter and an antenna for generating a magnetic alternating field B1 for exciting nuclear spins in a patient; and
a receive antenna and a receiver for receiving a magnetic resonance signal from the patient,
wherein the controller is configured to:
provide a static B0 field map;
provide a gradient pulse for an image acquisition sequence;
determine an excitation of the nuclear spins to be achieved for the image acquisition sequence;
determine an excitation pulse for transmission through the transmitter by way of the antenna as a function of the B0 field map, wherein the excitation pulse is configured to generate the excitation of the nuclear spins to be achieved in the patient and achieve predetermined different target magnetizations for nuclear spins with at least two different Larmor frequencies;
output the gradient pulse by way of the gradient coils; and
output the excitation pulse by way of the antenna.

12. The magnetic resonance tomography scanner of claim 11 , wherein the transmitter comprises a plurality of transmit channels in signal connection with a plurality of transmit elements of the antenna, and
wherein the excitation pulse has a plurality of components for the plurality of transmit channels.

13. The magnetic resonance tomography scanner of claim 11 , wherein the controller is further configured to determine a B1 field map, and
wherein the determination of the excitation pulse is further determined as a function of the B1 field map.

14. The magnetic resonance tomography scanner of claim 13 , wherein the controller is further configured to acquire a physiological parameter of the patient, and
wherein the excitation pulse is further determined as a function of the physiological parameter of the patient.

15. The magnetic resonance tomography scanner of claim 13 , wherein the excitation pulse is further configured to achieve a saturation of the nuclear spins as excitation to be achieved.

16. The magnetic resonance tomography scanner of claim 11 , wherein the excitation pulse is further configured to achieve a saturation of the nuclear spins as excitation to be achieved.

17. The magnetic resonance tomography scanner of claim 11 , wherein the B0 field map is determined as a function of B0 deviations induced by the patient.

18. The magnetic resonance tomography scanner of claim 17 , wherein the controller is further configured to determine the gradient pulse,
wherein the B0 field map is determined as a function of dynamic effects of the B0 deviations caused by the magnetic gradient fields at a point in time of the excitation pulse, and
wherein the excitation pulse is output during the output of the gradient pulse by way of the gradient coils.

19. The magnetic resonance tomography scanner of claim 11 , wherein the controller is further configured to determine the gradient pulse,
wherein the B0 field map is determined as a function of dynamic effects of B0 deviations caused by the magnetic gradient fields at a point in time of the excitation pulse, and
wherein the excitation pulse is output during the output of the gradient pulse by way of the gradient coils.

20. The magnetic resonance tomography scanner of claim 11 , wherein the controller is further configured to acquire a physiological parameter of the patient, and
wherein the excitation pulse is determined as a function of the physiological parameter of the patient.

Assignees

• Siemens Healthcare Gmbh

Inventors

• Grodzki David
• Köhler Michael
• Ritter Dieter

Classifications

• G01R33/445 Primary

  MR involving a non-standard magnetic field B0, e.g. of low magnitude as in the earth's magnetic field or in nanoTesla spectroscopy, comprising a polarizing magnetic field for pre-polarisation, B0 with a temporal variation of its magnitude or direction such as field cycling of B0 or rotation of the direction of B0, or spatially inhomogeneous B0 like in fringe-field MR or in stray-field imaging · CPC title

• G01R33/34038

  Loopless coils, i.e. linear wire antennas · CPC title

• G01R33/4831

  using B1 gradients, e.g. rotating frame techniques, use of surface coils · CPC title

• G01R33/4838

  using spatially selective suppression or saturation of MR signals · CPC title

• G01R33/32 Primary

  Excitation or detection systems, e.g. using radio frequency signals · CPC title