Scout acquisition enables rapid motion estimation and reduction (SAMER) systems and methods for retrospective motion mitigation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12066513-B2
Application number	US-202117239161-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 23, 2021
Priority date	May 29, 2020
Publication date	Aug 20, 2024
Grant date	Aug 20, 2024

Abstract

In a method and system for reducing motion artifacts in magnetic resonance image data, a scout scan of the region of the patient is performed, a magnetic resonance (MR) measurement of the region of the patient is performed to acquire MR image data of the region of the patient, and motion correction is performed on the acquired MR image data based on the scout scan to generate corrected MR image data. The motion correction technique advantageously reduces an influence of a patient motion on the magnetic resonance image data.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for reducing motion artifacts in magnetic resonance image data acquired from a region of a patient using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device, the method comprising:
performing a scout scan of the region of the patient;
performing a magnetic resonance (MR) measurement of the region of the patient by performing a sequence reordering to acquire MR image data of the region of the patient,
wherein the sequence reordering includes a first reordering type for a center region of k-space and a second reordering type for a remainder of k-space, the second reordering type being different from the first reordering type; and
performing motion correction on the acquired MR image data based on the scout scan to generate corrected MR image data,
wherein the motion correction reduces an influence of a patient motion on the MR image data,
wherein the scout scan has a shorter duration than a duration of the MR measurement and does not exceed 10 seconds.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
positioning the patient in an imaging region of the MRI device that is configured to perform the MR measurement of the region of the patient.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the motion correction comprises estimating motion parameters based on the scout scan.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
generating one or more MR images based on the corrected MR image data; or
generating one or more MR images based on the corrected MR image data and generating one or more uncorrected MR images based on the acquired MR image data.

5. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
outputting the corrected MR image data as a computer data signal.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein performing the scout scan of the region of the patient comprises performing a single scout scan of the region of the patient.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the scout scan has a lower resolution than a resolution of the MR measurement.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the scout scan is a three-dimensional (3D) scout scan.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the acquired MR image data is three-dimensional (3D) MR image data.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first reordering type is checkered reordering.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the second reordering type is linear reordering, radial reordering, or spiral reordering.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a contrast of the scout scan is different from a contrast of the MR measurement.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium with an executable program stored thereon, that when executed, instructs a processor of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device to perform a method for reducing motion artifacts in magnetic resonance image data acquired from a region of a patient, the method comprising:
performing a scout scan of the region of the patient;
performing a magnetic resonance (MR) measurement of the region of the patient by performing a sequence reordering to acquire MR image data of the region of the patient,
wherein the sequence reordering includes a first reordering type for a center region of k-space and a second reordering type for a remainder of k-space, the second reordering type being different from the first reordering type; and
performing motion correction on the acquired MR image data based on the scout scan to generate corrected MR image data,
wherein the motion correction reduces an influence of a patient motion on the MR image data,
wherein the scout scan has a shorter duration than a duration of the MR measurement and does not exceed 10 seconds.

14. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, comprising:
a magnetic resonance (MR) scanner configured to perform a MR measurement of a region of a patient; and
a controller that is configured to:
control the MR scanner to perform a scout scan of the region of the patient;
control the MR scanner to perform the MR measurement of the region of the patient by performing a sequence reordering to acquire MR image data of the region of the patient,

wherein the sequence reordering includes a first reordering type for a center region of k-space and a second reordering type for a remainder of k-space, the second reordering type being different from the first reordering type; and
perform motion correction on the acquired MR image data based on the scout scan to generate corrected MR image data,
wherein the motion correction reduces an influence of a patient motion on the MR image data,
wherein the scout scan has a shorter duration than a duration of the MR measurement and does not exceed 10 seconds.

15. The MRI system according to claim 14 , wherein the MR scanner further comprises a patient support, and
wherein the controller is further configured to control the patient support to position the patient in an imaging region of the MRI scanner.

16. The MRI system according to claim 14 , wherein performing the scout scan of the region of the patient comprises performing a single scout scan of the region of the patient.

17. The MRI system according to claim 14 , wherein:
the scout scan has a lower resolution than a resolution of the MR measurement; and/or
the scout scan has a shorter duration than a duration of the MR measurement.

Assignees

• Siemens Healthcare Gmbh
• Massachusetts Gen Hospital
• Siemens Healthineers Ag

Inventors

• Polak Daniel
• Cauley Stephen Farman
• Setsompop Kawin

Classifications

• G01R33/4818

  MR characterised by data acquisition along a specific k-space trajectory or by the temporal order of k-space coverage, e.g. centric or segmented coverage of k-space · CPC title

• G01R33/5608

  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

• G01R33/5611

  Parallel magnetic resonance imaging, e.g. sensitivity encoding [SENSE], simultaneous acquisition of spatial harmonics [SMASH], unaliasing by Fourier encoding of the overlaps using the temporal dimension [UNFOLD], k-t-broad-use linear acquisition speed-up technique [k-t-BLAST], k-t-SENSE (structural details of arrays of sub-coils G01R33/3415) · CPC title

• G01R33/4826

  in three dimensions · CPC title

• G01R33/543 Primary

  Control of the operation of the MR system, e.g. setting of acquisition parameters prior to or during MR data acquisition, dynamic shimming, use of one or more scout images for scan plane prescription (G01R33/546 takes precedence) · CPC title