System for assistance of parameter determination and diagnosis in mri dynamic uptake studies

• US 20030036694A1
• Filed: 08/16/2001
• Published: 02/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Marconi Medical Systems, Inc. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Liu, Kecheng
• Granted Patent: US 6,597,938 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/413
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/055 involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7292 Prospective gating, i.e. predicting the occurrence of a physiological event for use as a synchronisation signal
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/507 for determination of haemodynamic parameters, e.g. perfusion CT
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/541 involving acquisition triggered by a physiological signal
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/281 Means for the use of in vitro contrast agents G01R33/282 takes precedence; involving use of a contrast agent in MR imaging G01R33/5601; in vivo contrast agents A61K49/0002
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/563 of moving material, e.g. flow contrast angiography
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/92 Computer assisted medical diagnostics

Abstract

A parameter compilation memory (62, 114) stores patient physiological information and contrast agent arrival or uptake times (t_D, t_A, t_V) from past patients. A triggering or synchronizing window processor (64, 112) sets a triggering window, i.e. estimates the arrival time, based on the past patient information. A subject (16) disposed within an imaging region (12, 90) is injected with a contrast agent (66). Arrival of the contrast agent in the imaging region is detected (72, 110) with a real time tracking method. Diagnostic imaging is commenced on the first to occur of the detection of contrast agent arrival within the window and the end of the triggering window. The uptake times for the subject (16) are compared to those stored in the memory (62, 114) and analyzed to propose a diagnosis.

Claims

1. A method of angiographic imaging comprising:

disposing a region of interest of a subject in an examination region;

entering physical parameters of the subject into a parameter database;

accessing the parameter database to determine diagnostic imaging triggering information for the subject;

injecting a contrast agent into the subject;

monitoring for an arrival of the contrast agent in a region of interest;

initiating an angiographic imaging scan in response to detecting the arrival of the contrast agent and the determined triggering information; and

,

updating the parameter database.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1, further including:

analyzing the angiographic images to determine parameters for updating the parameter database.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the determined triggering information includes a temporal triggering window within which window the initiating of the angiographic imaging scans is permitted.

4. The method as set forth in claim 3, further including:

in the absence of detecting the arrival of the contrast agent in the region of interest, initiating the imaging scan at the end of the triggering window.

5. The method as set forth in claim 3, further including:

conducting a collateral angiography scan prior to the injection of the contrast agent to detect physiological conditions that affect a projected arrival time of the contrast agent.

6. The method as set forth in claim 5, further including:

adjusting the triggering window in response to detected physiological conditions.

7. The method as set forth in claim 1, further including:

determining values of a contrast agent arrival time t_D, an arterial phase contrast agent time t_A and a venous phase contrast agent time t_V of the subject;

comparing the determined t_D t_A and t_V values against values stored in the parameter database;

making a proposed diagnosis of the subject based on the determined values from the subject and the stored values from the parameter database.

8. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the parameters include:

an age of the subject;

a sex of the subject;

a weight of the subject; and

,

vascular abnormalities of the subject.

9. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the step of monitoring for the arrival of the contrast agent includes at least one of:

fluoroscopic image tracking;

k-space signal tracking;

repetitive sampling of select central k-space values; and

,

repetitive sampling of portions of collected data sets.

10. The method as set forth in claim 1, further including:

generating a pilot image sensitive to blood flow velocities in the region of interest of the subject;

diagnosing occlusions of blood vessels in the region of interest.

11. The method as set forth in claim 10, wherein one of a dynamic uptake magnetic resonance angiography imaging scan and a dynamic uptake computed tomography imaging scan is performed upstream of the occlusions and downstream of the injected contrast agent.

13. The method as set forth in claim 10, wherein the database further includes patient physiological information and diagnoses and further including:

displaying the diagnoses from the database of patients with similar physiological information and values of t_D, t_A, and t_V.

12. A method of diagnosing vascular anomalies comprising:

injecting a subject with a contrast agent;

generating angiographic images of a region of interest of the subject;

measuring a contrast agent arrival time t_D in the region of interest;

measuring an arterial phase time t_A in which the contrast agent enhances arterial blood flow;

measuring a venous phase time t_V in which the contrast agent enhances venous blood flow;

comparing the measured times t_D, t_A, and t_V to a database containing values of t_D, t_A, and t_V of a multiplicity of patients.

14. A diagnostic imaging apparatus comprising:

a parameter compilation memory in which contrast agent uptake times are stored from a plurality of prior contrast agent enhanced angiography imaging scans of other subjects;

a contrast agent detection circuit which verifies a successful detection of the contrast agent and loads the uptake times into the parameter compilation memory;

a reconstruction processor which reconstructs received data signals into an image representation of the subject.

15. The diagnostic imaging apparatus as set forth in claim 14, wherein the parameter compilation memory includes a download portion by which it integrates a parameter compilation memory of at least one other diagnostic imaging apparatus into its own parameter compilation memory.

16. The diagnostic imaging apparatus as set forth in claim 14, further including an image analyzer that calculates an arterial arrival time t_A and a venous arrival time t_V from the reconstructed image representation.

17. The diagnostic imaging apparatus as set forth in claim 14, further including:

a means for generating contrast agent enhanced diagnostic images;

a parameter memory that holds contrast agent related parameters of past diagnostic images of a plurality of patients and corresponding diagnoses;

a means for determining the contrast agent related parameters of present patients;

a means for comparing the present patient parameters with the parameters from past patient diagnostic images;

a means for analyzing the past patient parameters and the present patient parameters to offer proposed diagnoses.

18. A diagnostic imaging apparatus that generates contrast agent enhanced angiographic images, the apparatus including:

a means for generating contrast agent enhanced diagnostic images;

a parameter memory that holds contrast agent related parameters of past diagnostic images of a plurality of patients and corresponding diagnoses;

a means for determining the contrast agent related parameters of present patients;

a means for comparing the present patient parameters with the parameters from past patient diagnostic images;

a means for analyzing the past patient parameters and the present patient parameters to offer diagnosing assistance.

19. An angiographic imaging apparatus comprising:

a means for generating contrast agent enhanced diagnostic images of a region of interest of a subject disposed in an examination region;

a means for monitoring and timing arrival of a bolus of injected contrast agent in the examination region;

a memory means for storing (1) contrast agent arrival timing for a multiplicity of prior patients and (2) prior patient physiological characteristics;

a means for determining a projected contrast agent arrival window from the stored contrast agent arrival time of at least patients with similar physiological characteristics and at least one of;

(1) blocking the image generating means from generating an image outside of the contrast agent arrival window and (2) causing the image generating means to initiate generating a diagnostic image at the end of the projected contrast agent arrival window.