Heteronuclear nuclear magnetic resonance fingerprinting

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9869739-B2
Application number	US-201213651690-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 15, 2012
Priority date	Oct 15, 2012
Publication date	Jan 16, 2018
Grant date	Jan 16, 2018

Abstract

Apparatus, methods, and other embodiments associated with heteronuclear nuclear magnetic resonance fingerprinting (NMRfp) are described. One example apparatus includes individually controllable radio frequency transmission coils configured to apply varying NMRfp RF excitations to a sample. The NMR apparatus may apply excitations in parallel. The excitations cause different nuclei to produce different signal evolutions. Different pairs of nuclei may produce different signal evolutions depending on quantum correlations between the types of nuclei.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of controlling a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) apparatus, comprising:
controlling the NMR apparatus using a computer in order to apply radio frequency (RF) energy into a volume in an object,
where the RF energy being applied is applied in a coordinated series of two or more variable sequence blocks,
where a variable sequence block of applied RF energy includes one or more excitation phases, one or more readout phases, and one or more waiting phases,
where at least one sequence block in the coordinated series of two or more variable sequence blocks differs from at least one other variable sequence block in the coordinated series of two or more variable sequence blocks, in at least N sequence block parameters, with N being an integer greater than one, and where the sequence block parameters may comprise:
relaxation time, echo time, flip angle, phase encoding, diffusion encoding, flow encoding, RF pulse amplitude, RF pulse phase, number of RF pulses, type of gradient applied between an excitation portion of a sequence block and a readout portion of a sequence block, number of gradients applied between an excitation portion of a sequence block and a readout portion of a sequence block, type of gradient applied between a readout portion of a sequence block and an excitation portion of a sequence block, number of gradients applied between a readout portion of a sequence block and an excitation portion of a sequence block, type of gradient applied during a readout portion of a sequence block, number of gradients applied during a readout portion of a sequence block, amount of RF spoiling, and amount of gradient spoiling;
where a first member of the coordinated series of two or more variable sequence blocks is configured to cause a first nuclei type in the volume of the object to produce a first NMR signal, and
where a second member of the coordinated series of two or more variable sequence blocks is configured to cause a second different nuclei type in the volume of the object to produce a second NMR signal;

controlling the NMR apparatus using the computer in order to acquire a signal evolution from the volume of the object, where the acquired signal evolution is a function of NMR excitation produced by applying the RF energy in the coordinated series of two or more variable sequence blocks;
comparing, using the computer, the acquired signal evolution to one or more of, a reference signal evolution, and a combination of reference signal evolutions in order to generate at least one image of the object that provides a heteronuclear NMR fingerprinting quantitative characterization of the volume of the object based on the nuclei present in the volume of the object; and
displaying the at least one generated image of the object that provides the heteronuclear NMR fingerprinting quantitative characterization of the volume of the object on a display that Is in communication with the computer.

2. The method of claim 1 , where the RF energy is configured to cause a transfer of magnetization between the first nuclei type and the second nuclei type in accordance with a quantum correlation pathway.

3. The method of claim 2 , where the first nuclei type is 1H and where the second nuclei type is one of 13C, 14N, 15N, 31P, and 17O.

4. The method of claim 2 , where the first nuclei type is 13C and where the second nuclei type is one of 14N and 31P.

5. The method of claim 1 , where the N sequence block parameters comprise three or more of: echo time, flip angle, phase encoding, diffusion encoding, flow encoding, RF pulse amplitude, RF pulse phase, number of RF pulses, type of gradient applied between an excitation portion of a sequence block and a readout portion of a sequence block, number of gradients applied between an excitation portion of a sequence block and a readout portion of a sequence block, type of gradient applied between a readout portion of a sequence block and an excitation portion of a sequence block, number of gradients applied between a readout portion of a sequence block and an excitation portion of a sequence block, type of gradient applied during a readout portion of a sequence block, number of gradients applied during a readout portion of a sequence block, amount of RF spoiling, and amount of gradient spoiling.

6. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
controlling the NMR apparatus with the computer in order to vary one or more of, the amount of time between sequence blocks, the relative amplitude of RF pulses in sequence blocks, and the relative phase of RF pulses in sequence blocks.

7. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
controlling the NMR apparatus with the computer in order to apply the RF energy according to a partially random acquisition plan configured to under-sample the object at an under-sampling rate R.

8. The method of claim 1 , where the reference signal evolutions include signals outside the set of signal evolutions characterized by the equation of:
SE= A−Be −t/C
where:
SE is a signal evolution,
A is a constant,
B is a constant,
T is time, and

C is a single relaxation parameter.

9. The method of claim 1 , where the reference signal evolutions include a signal evolution selected from a set of signal evolutions described by one of:

SE
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Assignees

• Univ Case Western Reserve
• Case Wetern Reserve Univ

Inventors

• Griswold Mark

Classifications

• G01R33/4828

  Resolving the MR signals of different chemical species, e.g. water-fat imaging · CPC title

• G01R33/3635

  Multi-frequency operation · CPC title

• G01R33/5605

  by transferring coherence or polarization from a spin species to another, e.g. creating magnetization transfer contrast [MTC], polarization transfer using nuclear Overhauser enhancement [NOE] · CPC title

• G01R33/5612

  Parallel RF transmission, i.e. RF pulse transmission using a plurality of independent transmission channels · CPC title

• G01R33/561 Primary

  by reduction of the scanning time, i.e. fast acquiring systems, e.g. using echo-planar pulse sequences · CPC title