Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and magnetic resonance imaging method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9535146-B2
Application number	US-201214240192-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 19, 2012
Priority date	Sep 29, 2011
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

In the non-Cartesian measurement, image quality is improved while the advantages of non-Cartesian measurement are maintained. To realize the aforementioned, in the non-Cartesian measurement, artifacts caused by non-uniform data density in k-space are reduced. Therefore, each unit k-space is imaged by an inverse Fourier transform, the field of view of the image is enlarged in a direction in which data density is to be increased, and the image after the enlargement of the field of view is Fourier transformed and gridded as unit k-space that has a small k-space pitch in the direction in which the field of view has been enlarged and has an increased amount of data. This processing is repeated for all blades.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus, comprising:
a measurement unit that acquires unit k-space data by measuring an echo signal for each unit k-space by non-Cartesian measurement;
a correction unit that corrects the unit k-space data to acquire unit k-space data after correction;
a rearrangement unit that rearranges the unit k-space data after correction in Cartesian coordinate system k-space; and
an imaging unit that reconstructs an image by performing an inverse Fourier transform of data after rearrangement by the rearrangement unit,
wherein the correction unit includes a unit imaging section that reconstructs a unit image, which is an image of each unit k-space, from the unit k-space data, a field of view enlargement section that enlarges a field of view of the unit image to acquire an enlarged image, and a unit signaling section that performs a Fourier transform of the enlarged image to acquire unit k-space data after correction.

2. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the field of view enlargement section acquires the enlarged image by performing zero filling in a phase direction of the unit image.

3. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a receiving coil having a plurality of channels; and
a combination unit that combines final images obtained for the respective channels.

4. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 3 ,
wherein the measurement unit acquires the unit k-space data by measuring the echo signal for each of the channels using the receiving coil,
the correction unit acquires the unit k-space data after correction by correcting the unit k-space data for each of the channels,
the rearrangement unit rearranges the unit k-space data after correction for each of the channels,
the imaging unit acquires the final image for each of the channels, and
the combination unit combines the final images of the respective channels.

5. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 3 ,
wherein the measurement unit acquires the unit k-space data by measuring the echo signal for each of the channels using the receiving coil,
the unit imaging section rearranges the unit image from the unit k-space data for each of the channels,
the combination unit acquires a composite unit image by combining the unit images of the respective channels, and
the field of view enlargement section uses the composite unit image as the unit image.

6. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a parallel arithmetic unit that performs a parallel imaging operation to expand folds using sensitivity distribution,
wherein the measurement unit thins out measurements of the echo signals in the non-Cartesian measurement.

7. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 6 ,
wherein the parallel arithmetic unit acquires an expanded unit mage by expanding folds of the unit image, and
the field of view enlargement section uses the expanded unit image as a unit image to enlarge the field of view.

8. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 6 ,
wherein the parallel arithmetic unit acquires interpolated unit k-space data by interpolating the unit k-space data, and
the unit imaging section reconstructs the unit image from the interpolated unit k-space data.

9. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 8 , further comprising:
a combination unit that combines the unit image to acquire a composite unit image,
wherein the field of view enlargement section uses the composite unit image as a unit image to enlarge the field of view.

10. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the unit imaging section performs zero filling for the unit k-space data so that the number of pieces of data to be processed becomes a power of 2 and then reconstructs the unit image from unit k-space data after the zero filling, and
the unit signaling section acquires the unit k-space data after correction by performing a Fourier transform of the enlarged image and then performing a process of removing the zero filling performed for the unit k-space data by the unit imaging section.

11. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the measurement unit performs the measurement using half measurement.

12. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the non-Cartesian measurement is a measurement using a hybrid radial method in which measurement is performed by dividing k-space where the echo signal is disposed into a plurality of unit k-spaces that are unit k-spaces having measurement trajectories passing through an origin of the k-space and that have different rotation angles, which are angles of the measurement trajectories with respect to a coordinate axis of the k-space.

13. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the field of view enlargement section performs zero filling of pixels for a field of view enlarged with a magnification set in advance.

14. A magnetic resonance imaging method, comprising:
a signal measurement step of acquiring unit k-space data by measuring an echo signal for each unit k-space by non-Cartesian measurement;
a unit image reconstruction step of reconstructing a unit image, which is an image of each unit k-space, from the unit k-space data;
a field of view enlargement step of enlarging a field of view of the unit image to acquire an enlarged image;
a unit signaling step of performing a Fourier transform of the enlarged image to acquire unit k-space data after correction;
a signal rearrangement step of rearranging the unit k-space data after correction in Cartesian coordinate system k-space; and
a final imaging step of reconstructing an image by performing an inverse Fourier transform of data after rearrangement in the signal rearrangement step.

15. The magnetic resonance imaging method according to claim 14 ,
wherein, in the signal measurement step, echo signals are thinned out and measured for each unit k-space to acquire the unit k-space data,
a parallel arithmetic step of acquiring an expanded unit image by expanding folds of the unit image is included, and
in the field of view enlargement step, the enlarged image is acquired by enlarging a field of view of the expanded unit image.

16. The magnetic resonance imaging method according to claim 14 ,
wherein, in the signal measurement step, echo signals are thinned out and measured for each unit k-space to acquire the unit k-space data,
a parallel arithmetic step of acquiring interpolated unit k-space data by interpolating the unit k-space data is included, and
in the unit image reconstruction step, the unit image is reconstructed from the interpolated unit k-space data.

17. The magnetic resonance imaging method according to claim 14 ,
wherein, in the signal measurement step, unit k-space data is acquired for each channel,
in the unit image reconstruction step, the unit image of each channel is reconstructed from the unit k-space data of each channel,
an image combination step of acquiring a composite unit image by combining the unit image of each channel is included, and
in the field of view enlargement step, the enlarged image is acquired by enlarging a field of view of the composite unit image.

Assignees

• Kamada Yasuhiro
• Hanada Hikaru
• Takizawa Masahiro
• Hitachi Ltd

Inventors

• Kamada Yasuhiro
• Hanada Hikaru
• Takizawa Masahiro

Classifications

• G01R33/482 Primary

  using a Cartesian trajectory · 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

• G01R33/4824 Primary

  using a non-Cartesian trajectory · 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