System and Method for Mode Mixing in Magnetic Resonance Imaging
First Claim
1. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system comprising:
- a computer system configured to operate the MRI system during an imaging process to image a subject;
an RF system including a receive coil array having a first number of channels configured to acquire signals from the subject during the imaging process;
mode-mixing apparatus configured to receive the signals acquired by the receive coil array to form a coil basis set having the first number of channels and the mode-mixing apparatus comprising;
a plurality of splitters configured to receive the coil basis set and produce a plurality of sub-signals;
a plurality of amplifiers configured to adjust the respective sub-signals by a respective adjustable amplification value;
a plurality of phase shifters configured to phase shift the respective sub-signals by a respective adjustable phase-shift value; and
a plurality of combiners configured to receive the plurality of amplified and phase shifted sub-signals and produce an output basis set having a second number of channels.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides a system and method for using a hardware-based compression of signals acquired with an magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system. This allows a first multi-channel MR signal to be compressed to a second multi-channel MR signal having fewer channels than the first MR signal. This system and method reduces the number of RF receivers needed to achieve the sensitivity encoding benefits associated with highly parallel detection in MRI. Furthermore, the system and method reduces bottlenecks connection an MRI system'"'"'s RF receiver and reconstruction computer and reduces the computational burden of image reconstruction.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system comprising:
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a computer system configured to operate the MRI system during an imaging process to image a subject; an RF system including a receive coil array having a first number of channels configured to acquire signals from the subject during the imaging process; mode-mixing apparatus configured to receive the signals acquired by the receive coil array to form a coil basis set having the first number of channels and the mode-mixing apparatus comprising; a plurality of splitters configured to receive the coil basis set and produce a plurality of sub-signals; a plurality of amplifiers configured to adjust the respective sub-signals by a respective adjustable amplification value; a plurality of phase shifters configured to phase shift the respective sub-signals by a respective adjustable phase-shift value; and a plurality of combiners configured to receive the plurality of amplified and phase shifted sub-signals and produce an output basis set having a second number of channels. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for calibrating a mode-mixing apparatus including a plurality of hardware-based amplifiers and phase shifters for use in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, the steps comprising:
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a) performing a prescan to determine a plurality of sensitivity profiles of a receiver coil array; b) analyzing the sensitivity profiles of the receiver coils to generate a set of mode-mixing coefficients; and c) loading the coefficients determined in step b) in the mode-mixing apparatus to select a value of amplification at each of the plurality of hardware-based amplifiers and a value of phase shift at each of the plurality of hardware-based phase shifters. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A mode-mixing apparatus for use in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system to receive and process a coil basis set having a first number of channels, the mode-mixing apparatus comprising:
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a plurality of splitters configured to receive the coil basis set and produce a plurality of sub-signals; a plurality of amplifiers configured to adjust the respective sub-signals by a respective adjustable amplification value; a plurality of phase shifters configured to phase shift the respective sub-signals by a respective adjustable phase-shift value; and a plurality of combiners configured to receive the plurality of amplified and phase shifted sub-signals and produce an output basis set having a second number of channels that is less than the first number of channels of the coil basis set. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21)
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Specification