Method and system for performing image reconstruction in a magnetic resonance imaging system

• US 20060202693A1
• Filed: 03/11/2005
• Published: 09/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Zhou, Yong
• Granted Patent: US 7,233,144 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 324/307
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/4822 in three dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/5608 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

Abstract

Methods and Systems for image reconstruction in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are provided. The method includes receiving MRI data and storing the received MRI data. The method further includes reordering the stored MRI data during an image reconstruction.

Claims

1. A method for image reconstruction in magnetic resonance imaging, said method comprising:

receiving magnetic resonance image data defining a volumetric data set;

storing the received magnetic resonance image data; and

reordering the stored magnetic resonance image data during an image reconstruction.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the received magnetic resonance image data is stored in a memory and the reordering comprises remapping the stored magnetic resonance image data in the memory.

3. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the image reconstruction comprises a Fourier Transform and wherein the reordering is performed before each of a plurality of Fourier Transform processes.

4. A method in accordance with claim 3 wherein the magnetic resonance image data comprises data in three dimensions and wherein the reordering is performed before the Fourier Transform of the data for two dimensions.

5. A method in accordance with claim 3 wherein the Fourier Transform comprises a Fast Fourier Transform.

6. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the reordering comprises remapping the stored magnetic resonance image data dynamically based on the magnetic resonance image data being used for image reconstruction.

7. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the received magnetic resonance image data is stored in a memory and the reordering comprises rearranging the stored magnetic resonance image data in the memory.

8. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the reordering comprises remapping the stored magnetic resonance image data sequentially in a memory based on a dimension corresponding to the stored magnetic resonance image data.

9. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the reordering comprises swapping in a memory the received magnetic resonance image data.

10. A method for image reconstruction in magnetic resonance imaging, said method comprising:

receiving magnetic resonance image data corresponding to each of three dimensions of a magnetic resonance image scan;

storing the received magnetic resonance image data in a memory; and

remapping the stored magnetic resonance image data before each of a processing step corresponding to processing the data for each of the three dimensions to reconstruct an image.

11. A method in accordance with claim 10 wherein each processing step comprises Fourier Transforming the magnetic resonance image data.

12. A method in accordance with claim 10 wherein the storing comprises sequentially storing the magnetic resonance image data in a Random Access Memory (RAM).

13. A method in accordance with claim 12 wherein the remapping is performed on the magnetic resonance image data stored in the RAM.

14. A method in accordance with claim 10 further comprising performing a three-dimensional volumetric Fast Fourier Transform to reconstruct the image.

15. A method in accordance with claim 10 further wherein the remapping comprises localizing the magnetic resonance image data for the next processing step.

16. A method in accordance with claim 10 wherein the remapping comprises readdressing the stored magnetic resonance image data.

17. A magnetic resonance imaging system comprising:

a scan portion for acquiring magnetic resonance image data;

a memory for storing the acquired magnetic resonance image data; and

a processor network configured to remap the stored magnetic resonance image data during an image reconstruction.

18. A magnetic resonance imaging system in accordance with claim 17 wherein the processor is configured to perform a Fast Fourier Transform on the stored magnetic resonance image data.

19. A magnetic resonance imaging system in accordance with claim 17 wherein the magnetic resonance image data corresponds to three dimensions of scanning and wherein the processor is configured to remap the stored magnetic resonance image data prior to performing image reconstruction using data corresponding to each of the three two dimensions.

20. A magnetic resonance imaging system in accordance with claim 17 wherein the processor is configured to perform three-dimensional image reconstruction using the stored magnetic resonance image data.