Ungated non-contrast enhanced magnetic resonance angiography using multiple subset reconstruction and temporal maximum intensity projection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11950876-B2
Application number	US-202016994778-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 17, 2020
Priority date	Aug 15, 2019
Publication date	Apr 9, 2024
Grant date	Apr 9, 2024

Abstract

A system and method for a non-contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging technique using a temporal maximum intensity projection reconstructed from multiple temporal subsets of data acquired the acquisition window. The method includes applying a radiofrequency pulse to the subject, waiting a quiescent interval, performing a radial acquisition with a golden-angle view angle increment over a duration corresponding to a cardiac cycle of the subject to generate acquisition data, reconstructing a plurality of images across a plurality of temporal phases from the acquisition data and generating a temporal maximum intensity projection image by tracking an intensity of each pixel across the plurality of images and selecting the pixel having a maximum intensity value across the plurality of images.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for imaging a subject, the method comprising:
applying a radiofrequency pulse to the subject;
after a quiescent interval, performing a radial acquisition over a duration corresponding to a cardiac cycle of the subject to generate acquisition data;
reconstructing a plurality of 2-D images across a plurality of sequential temporal phases within the duration from the acquisition data, each of the 2-D images depicting a same partial cross-section of the subject and being reconstructed from a continuously sampled subset of the plurality of the sequential temporal phases; and
generating a temporal maximum intensity projection image of the same partial cross-section of the subject by tracking an intensity of each pixel across the plurality of 2-D images and selecting a maximum intensity value for the pixel across the plurality of 2-D images, which corresponds to a maximum intensity during the cardiac cycle, such that vascular stripe artifacts in the temporal maximum intensity projection image are removed relative to the plurality of 2-D images.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying the radiofrequency pulse to the subject comprises applying in-plane and traveling venous saturation pulses to the subject.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein applying the radiofrequency pulse to the subject comprises applying a fat-suppression pulse to the subject.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the radial acquisition is configured to image peripheral blood vessels of the subject.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cardiac cycle comprises an average cardiac cycle of the subject.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the performing the radial acquisition comprises a golden-angle view angle increment.

7. A medical imaging system comprising:
an MRI machine; and
a computer system coupled to the MRI machine, the computer system comprising:
a processor; and
a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computer system to:
cause the MRI machine to apply a radiofrequency pulse to a subject;
after a quiescent interval, cause the MRI machine to perform a radial acquisition over a duration corresponding to a cardiac cycle of the subject to generate acquisition data;
reconstruct a plurality of 2-D images across a plurality of sequential temporal phases within the duration from the acquisition data, each of the 2-D images depicting a same partial cross-section of—the subject and being reconstructed from a continuously sampled subset of the plurality of the sequential temporal phases; and
generate a temporal maximum intensity projection image of the same partial cross-section of the subject by tracking an intensity of each pixel across the plurality of 2-D images and selecting a maximum intensity value for the pixel across the plurality of 2-D images, which corresponds to a maximum intensity during the cardiac cycle, such that vascular stripe artifacts in the temporal maximum intensity projection image are removed relative to the plurality of 2-D images.

8. The medical imaging system of claim 7 , wherein the memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the MRI machine to apply the radiofrequency pulse to the subject by applying in-plane and traveling venous saturation pulses to the subject.

9. The medical imaging system of claim 7 , wherein the memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the MRI machine to apply the radiofrequency pulse to the subject by applying a fat-suppression pulse to the subject.

10. The medical imaging system of claim 7 , wherein the radial acquisition is configured to image peripheral blood vessels of the subject.

11. The medical imaging system of claim 7 , wherein the cardiac cycle comprises an average cardiac cycle of the subject.

12. The medical imaging system of claim 7 , wherein the radial acquisition comprises a golden-angle view angle increment.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising dividing the acquisition data into a plurality of sequential subsets.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the plurality of sequential temporal phases correspond to the plurality of sequential subsets.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the continuously sampled subset is sampled over a view increment.

Assignees

• Siemens Healthineers Ag
• Northshore Univ Healthsystem

Inventors

• Pang Jianing
• Edelman Robert R
• Koktzoglou Ioannis

Classifications

• A61B5/055

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

• A61B5/004 Primary

  adapted for image acquisition of a particular organ or body part (A61B5/0082 takes precedence; arrangements for optical scanning A61B5/0062) · CPC title

• A61B5/7292

  Prospective gating, i.e. predicting the occurrence of a physiological event for use as a synchronisation signal · CPC title

• G01R33/4838

  using spatially selective suppression or saturation of MR signals · 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