Magnetic resonance imaging method and apparatus with interleaved resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging sequences and morphological magnetic resonance imaging sequences

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9739856-B2
Application number	US-201313922568-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 20, 2013
Priority date	Jun 20, 2013
Publication date	Aug 22, 2017
Grant date	Aug 22, 2017

Abstract

In a method and apparatus for acquiring magnetic resonance data, a resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging sequence is executed in alternation with a morphological data acquisition sequence. The alternating sequences are executed with no time interruptions therebetween, with at least one repetition of the alternating sequences. The resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging sequence can be a BOLD-EPI sequence, and the morphological imaging sequence can be an MPRAGE sequence.

First claim

We claim as our invention:

1. A method for acquiring magnetic resonance data from an examination subject, comprising:
(a) operating a magnetic resonance data acquisition unit, with an examination subject therein, to execute a resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) sequence to acquire functional magnetic resonance data from the examination subject;
(b) immediately following (a), with no time interruption, operating said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit to execute a morphological magnetic resonance data acquisition sequence, to acquire morphological magnetic resonance data from the examination subject;
(c) immediately following (b), with no time interruption, repeating (a) and (b) at least once; and
(d) processing said functional magnetic resonance data and said morphological magnetic resonance data in a computerized processor to obtain processed functional magnetic resonance image data and processed morphological magnetic resonance image data, and making said processed functional magnetic resonance image data and said processed morphological image data available in electronic form at an output of said processor, in respective data files.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising operating said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit with a BOLD-EPI (Blood Oxygen Level Dependent-Echo Planar Imaging) sequence as said rsfMRI sequence.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising operating said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit with an MPRAGE (Magnetization-Prepared Rapid Gradient Echo) sequence as said morphological data acquisition sequence.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising operating said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit with a BOLD-EPI (Blood Oxygen Level Dependent-Echo Planar Imaging) sequence as said rsfMRI sequence, and operating said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit with an MPRAGE (Magnetization-Prepared Rapid Gradient Echo) sequence as said morphological data acquisition sequence.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising operating said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit to execute said rsfMRI sequence with a functional sequence duration, and operating said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit to execute said morphological data acquisition sequence with a morphological sequence duration that is equal to said functional sequence duration in (b) and in all repetitions of (a) and (b).

6. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising operating said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit to execute said rsfMRI sequence with a functional sequence duration, and operating said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit to execute said morphological data acquisition sequence with a morphological sequence duration that is different from said functional sequence duration in (b) and in at least some repetitions of (a) and (b).

7. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein said functional magnetic resonance image data is band-limited to a bandwidth that imposes a sampling time limit Δaccording to the Nyquist theorem, and comprising operating said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit with each of said functional sequence duration and said morphological sequence duration being in a range between 0.1 s and 5 s-Δ.

8. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein said functional magnetic resonance image data is band-limited to a bandwidth that imposes a sampling time limit Δaccording to the Nyquist theorem, and comprising operating said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit with each of said functional sequence duration and said morphological sequence duration being in a range between 0.1 s and 1.5 s-Δ.

9. A magnetic resonance apparatus comprising:
a magnetic resonance data acquisition unit;
a control unit configured to operate said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit, with an examination subject therein, to execute a resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) sequence to acquire functional magnetic resonance data from the examination subject;
said control unit being configured to operate said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit immediately following said rsfMRI sequence, with no time interruption, to execute a morphological magnetic resonance data acquisition sequence, to acquire morphological magnetic resonance data from the examination subject;
said control unit being configured to operate said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit immediately following said morphological data acquisition sequence, with no time interruption, to repeat said rsfMRI sequence and said morphological magnetic data acquisition sequence at least once; and
a computerized processor configured to process said functional magnetic resonance data and said morphological magnetic resonance data to obtain processed functional magnetic resonance image data and processed morphological magnetic resonance image data, and to make said processed functional magnetic resonance image data and said processed morphological image data available in electronic form at an output of said processor, in respective data files.

10. A magnetic resonance apparatus as claimed in claim 9 wherein said control unit is configured to operate said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit with a BOLD-EPI (Blood Oxygen Level Dependent-Echo Planar Imaging) sequence as said rsfMRI sequence.

11. A magnetic resonance apparatus as claimed in claim 9 wherein said control unit is configured to operate said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit with an MPRAGE (Magnetization-Prepared Rapid Gradient Echo) sequence as said morphological data acquisition sequence.

12. A magnetic resonance apparatus as claimed in claim 9 wherein said control unit is configured to operate said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit with a BOLD-EPI (Blood Oxygen Level Dependent-Echo Planar Imaging) sequence as said rsfMRI sequence, and to operate said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit with an MPRAGE (Magnetization-Prepared Rapid Gradient Echo) sequence as said morphological data acquisition sequence.

13. A magnetic resonance apparatus as claimed in claim 9 wherein said control unit is configured to operate said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit to execute said rsfMRI sequence with a functional sequence duration, and to operate said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit to execute said morphological data acquisition sequence with a morphological sequence duration that is equal to said functional sequence duration and in all repetitions of said rsfMRI sequence and said morphological data acquisition sequence.

14. A magnetic resonance apparatus as claimed in claim 9 wherein said control unit is configured to operate said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit to execute said rsfMRI sequence with a functional sequence duration, and to operate said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit to execute said morphological data acquisition sequence with a morphological sequence duration that is different from said functional sequence duration in (b) and at least some repetitions of (c).

15. A magnetic resonance apparatus as claimed in claim 9 wherein said functional magnetic resonance image data is band-limited to a bandwidth that imposes a sampling time limit Δ according to the Nyquist theorem, and wherein said control unit is configured to operate said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit with each of said functional sequence duration and said morphological sequence duration being in a range between 0.1 s and 5 s-Δ.

16. A magnetic resonance apparatus as claimed in claim 9 wherein said functional magnetic resonance image data is band-limited to a bandwidth that imposes a samplin

Assignees

• Buckner Randy
• Heismann Bjoern
• Hengerer Arne
• Siemens Ag
• Presidents And Fellows Of Harvard College

Inventors

• Buckner Randy
• Heismann Bjoern
• Hengerer Arne

Classifications

• G01R33/4806 Primary

  Functional imaging of brain activation · CPC title