MAGNETIC RESONANCE DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS, MAGNETIC RESONANCE DIAGNOSTIC MAIN UNIT AND COIL UNIT

• US 20090322335A1
• Filed: 06/26/2009
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.), Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: OKAMOTO, Kazuya, ADACHI, Kohei
• Granted Patent: US 8,174,264 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 324/318
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/3692 involving signal transmission without using electrically conductive connections, e.g. wireless communication or optical communication of the MR signal or an auxiliary signal other than the MR signal

Abstract

An magnetic resonance diagnostic apparatus which includes a main unit and a coil unit, the magnetic resonance diagnostic apparatus including a sampling clock generating unit which generates a sampling clock signal, a sampling clock transmitting unit wirelessly transmits the sampling clock signal, a sampling clock receiving unit which receives the transmitted sampling clock signal, a receiving coil which outputs an electrical magnetic resonance signal in response to a magnetic resonance signal emitted from a subject as electromagnetic radiation, a digitization unit which digitizes, synchronously with the received sampling clock signal, the outputted magnetic resonance signal, a resonance signal transmitting unit which wirelessly transmits the digitized magnetic resonance signal, a resonance signal receiving unit which receives the transmitted magnetic resonance signal, and a reconstruction unit which processes, synchronously with the generated sampling clock signal, the received magnetic resonance signal and thereby reconstructs an image of the subject.

Claims

1. A magnetic resonance diagnostic apparatus which includes a main unit and a coil unit separate from the main unit, the magnetic resonance diagnostic apparatus comprising:

a sampling clock generating unit which is provided in the main unit and which generates a sampling clock signal;

a sampling clock transmitting unit which is provided in the main unit and which wirelessly transmits the sampling clock signal generated by the sampling clock generating unit;

a sampling clock receiving unit which is provided in the coil unit and which receives the sampling clock signal transmitted by the sampling clock transmitting unit;

a receiving coil which is provided in the coil unit and which outputs an electrical magnetic resonance signal in response to a magnetic resonance signal emitted from a subject as electromagnetic radiation;

a digitization unit which is provided in the coil unit and which digitizes, synchronously with the sampling clock signal received by the sampling clock receiving unit, the magnetic resonance signal output by the receiving coil;

a resonance signal transmitting unit which is provided in the coil unit and which wirelessly transmits the magnetic resonance signal digitized by the digitization unit;

a resonance signal receiving unit which is provided in the main unit and which receives the magnetic resonance signal transmitted by the resonance signal transmitting unit; and

a reconstruction unit which is provided in the main unit and which processes, synchronously with the sampling clock signal generated by the sampling clock generating unit, the magnetic resonance signal received by the resonance signal receiving unit and thereby reconstructs an image of the subject.

2. The magnetic resonance diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a modulation/demodulation clock generating unit which is provided in the main unit and which generates a modulation/demodulation clock signal;

a modulation/demodulation clock transmitting unit which is provided in the main unit and which wirelessly transmits the modulation/demodulation clock signal generated by the modulation/demodulation clock generating unit; and

a modulation/demodulation clock receiving unit which is provided in the coil unit and which receives the modulation/demodulation clock signal transmitted by the modulation/demodulation clock transmitting unit,

wherein the resonance signal transmitting unit modulates, synchronously with the modulation/demodulation clock signal received by the modulation/demodulation clock receiving unit, the magnetic resonance signal digitized by the digitization unit, and

the resonance signal receiving unit demodulates, synchronously with the modulation/demodulation clock signal generated by the modulation/demodulation clock generating unit, the magnetic resonance signal transmitted by the resonance signal transmitting unit and thereby acquires the digitized magnetic resonance signal.

3. The magnetic resonance diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising, a compression unit which is provided in the coil unit and which compresses the amplitude of the magnetic resonance signal output by the receiving coil,

wherein the digitization unit digitizes the magnetic resonance signal compressed by the compression unit, and

the reconstruction unit subjects the magnetic resonance signal received by the resonance signal receiving unit to digital processing to uncompress the amplitude of the magnetic resonance signal compressed by the compression unit, and then reconstructs an image of the subject on the basis of the magnetic resonance signal which has been subjected to the digital processing.

4. The magnetic resonance diagnostic apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the reconstruction unit measures a restore parameter for restoration of a known test signal from a signal received by the resonance signal receiving unit when the test signal is input to the compression unit, and the reconstruction unit uses this restore parameter to perform the digital processing.

5. A magnetic resonance diagnostic main unit which configures a magnetic resonance diagnostic apparatus together with a coil unit, the coil unit including:

a sampling clock receiving unit which receives a wirelessly transmitted sampling clock signal;

a receiving coil which outputs an electrical magnetic resonance signal in response to a magnetic resonance signal emitted from a subject as electromagnetic radiation;

a digitization unit which digitizes, synchronously with the sampling clock signal received by the sampling clock receiving unit, the magnetic resonance signal output by the receiving coil; and

a resonance signal transmitting unit which wirelessly transmits the magnetic resonance signal digitized by the digitization unit,

the magnetic resonance diagnostic main unit comprising;

a sampling clock generating unit which generates the sampling clock signal;

a sampling clock transmitting unit which wirelessly transmits the sampling clock signal generated by the sampling clock generating unit;

a resonance signal receiving unit which receives the magnetic resonance signal transmitted by the resonance signal transmitting unit; and

a reconstruction unit which processes, synchronously with the sampling clock signal generated by the sampling clock generating unit, the magnetic resonance signal received by the resonance signal receiving unit and thereby reconstructs an image of the subject.

6. A coil unit which configures a magnetic resonance diagnostic apparatus together with a main unit, the main unit including:

a sampling clock generating unit which generates a sampling clock signal;

a sampling clock transmitting unit which wirelessly transmits the sampling clock signal generated by the sampling clock generating unit;

a resonance signal receiving unit which receives a wirelessly transmitted magnetic resonance signal; and

a reconstruction unit which processes, synchronously with the sampling clock signal generated by the sampling clock generating unit, the magnetic resonance signal received by the resonance signal receiving unit and thereby reconstructs an image of a subject,

the coil unit comprising;

a sampling clock receiving unit which receives the sampling clock signal transmitted by the sampling clock transmitting unit;

a receiving coil which outputs an electrical magnetic resonance signal in response to a magnetic resonance signal emitted from the subject as electromagnetic radiation;

a digitization unit which digitizes, synchronously with the sampling clock signal received by the sampling clock receiving unit, the magnetic resonance signal output by the receiving coil; and

a resonance signal transmitting unit which wirelessly transmits the magnetic resonance signal digitized by the digitization unit.