Method and apparatus to improve myocardial infarction detection with blood pool signal suppression
First Claim
1. A method of MR imaging with blood pool suppression comprising:
- administering a contrast agent into the blood stream of a patient;
applying a pulse sequence having a slice-selective inversion RF pulse designed to suppress myocardial tissue followed by a notched inversion RF pulse designed to suppress blood pool at least within a region-of-interest;
acquiring MR data in the region-of-interest; and
reconstructing an MR image from the acquired MR data to assess a presence of myocardial infarction.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus are disclosed for achieving suppression of blood pool signal to detect myocardial infarction using MR technology. After administering a contrast agent into the blood stream of a patient, an RF pulse sequence is applied that includes a slice-selective inversion pulse to suppress normal myocardial tissue followed by a notched inversion RF pulse designed to suppress blood pool in and around the region-of-interest. MR data is then acquired within the region-ofinterest that not only has signals from normal myocardial tissue suppressed, but also has blood pool signal suppression to improve delineation of infarcted myocardium from the ventricular blood pool and normal myocardium.
22 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method of MR imaging with blood pool suppression comprising:
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administering a contrast agent into the blood stream of a patient;
applying a pulse sequence having a slice-selective inversion RF pulse designed to suppress myocardial tissue followed by a notched inversion RF pulse designed to suppress blood pool at least within a region-of-interest;
acquiring MR data in the region-of-interest; and
reconstructing an MR image from the acquired MR data to assess a presence of myocardial infarction. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. An MR pulse sequence comprising:
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a primary slice-selection inversion RF pulse having a pass-band greater in width than that of an image slice pulse;
a notched inversion RF pulse following the primary slice-selection inversion RF pulse and having a stop-band co-incident with that of the primary slice-selection inversion RF pulse; and
at least one image slice pulse for a segmented k-space gradient echo imaging segment acquisition separated an inversion time TI BSP from the notched inversion RF pulse. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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16. An MRI apparatus to improve myocardial infarction detection comprising:
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a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system having a plurality of gradient coils positioned about a bore of a magnet to impress a polarizing magnetic field and an RF transceiver system and an RF switch controlled by a pulse module to transmit RF signals to an RF coil assembly to acquire MR images; and
a computer programmed to;
transmit a slice-selection inversion pulse to suppress signals from normal myocardial tissue;
transmit a notched inversion RF pulse with an inversion time selected to invert regions inside and outside a desired imaging slice such that signals from blood flowing into the desired imaging slice are suppressed;
transmit excitation RF pulses; and
acquire data from the desired imaging slice having signal suppression from both normal myocardial tissue and blood.
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Specification