MRT RECEIVER COIL WITH LOCAL DATA STORAGE

• US 20120139538A1
• Filed: 06/01/2011
• Published: 06/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Healthcare GMBH (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Schmidt, Sebastian, Vester, Markus
• Granted Patent: US 9,075,114 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 324/309
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/34046 Volume type coils, e.g. bird-cage coils; Quadrature bird-cage coils; Circularly polarised coils
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/34069 Saddle coils
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/341 comprising surface coils
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/3621 NMR receivers or demodulators, e.g. preamplifiers, means for frequency modulation of the MR signal using a digital down converter, means for analog to digital conversion [ADC] or for filtering or processing of the MR signal such as bandpass filtering, resampling, decimation or interpolation

Abstract

The present embodiments relate to a method and a local coil arrangement for a magnetic resonance tomography system. The local coil arrangement includes an antenna element for the reception of signals from an object under examination. The local coil arrangement also includes an A/D converter for the conversion of analog signals received with the antenna element into digitized signals, and a memory configured for the storage of the digitized signals.

Claims

1. A local coil arrangement for a magnetic resonance tomography system, the local coil arrangement comprising:

an antenna element for the reception of signals from an object under examination;

an A/D converter for the conversion of analog signals received with an antenna element into digitized signals; and

a memory configured for the storage of the digitized signals.

2. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a device configured for the transmission of the digitized signals stored in the memory.

3. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 2, wherein the device configured for the transmission of the stored digitized signals comprises an antenna.

4. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 2, wherein the device configured for the transmission of the stored digitized signals comprises a connection for cable-based transmission of the stored digitized signals.

5. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an antenna control device configured for actuation of the antenna,

wherein the antenna control device comprises a transmission amplifier configured for amplification of the stored digitized signals to be transmitted.

6. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a preamplifier configured for the amplification of MRT signals received prior to the A/D conversion.

7. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a controller configured to consecutively transmit a plurality of the stored digitized signals stored.

8. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the A/D converter comprises an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

9. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the memory and the AD converter, or further modules are realized together in an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

10. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the local coil arrangement is configured such that upon imaging scanning of the object under examination, data is digitized in real time and initially written to the memory.

11. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 10, further comprising a controller configured so that during or after a measurement process, the digitized data stored in the memory is transmitted.

12. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 10, further comprising a controller configured so that stored measurement data is transmitted via a connection having a bandwidth at least at times lower than a data rate, with which analog data is received from the object under examination.

13. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 10, further comprising a controller configured so that transmission of data from the local coil arrangement takes place during the reception of magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) signals, and that only at times are data quantity peaks within the data buffered through storage in the memory.

14. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein a size of the memory sufficient for more than 80% of data accruing in an imaging scan of the object under examination.

15. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein a size of the memory is sufficient for all data accruing in an imaging scan of the object under examination.

16. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a controller configured so that during an imaging scan of the object under examination, data accruing is stored and is transmitted only after an imaging scan of the object under examination by radio or in a wired manner.

17. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the local coil arrangement is configured such that transmission of stored data only takes place when the object under examination, the local coil arrangement, or the object under examination and the local coil arrangement are no longer located in a field of view (FoV).

18. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a device configured for connection of the local coil arrangement to a charging station in order to replenish an energy store of the local coil arrangement and at the same time, to read out the digitized signals stored in the memory.

19. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the memory is configured as a data medium that is removable from the local coil arrangement.

20. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the local coil arrangement is configured such that information for imaging is also deposited in the memory,

wherein the information for imaging comprises information relating to protocols selected for the imaging, details of an imaging examination, or the protocols selected for the imaging and the details of the imaging examination.

21. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the local coil arrangement is configured such that during transmission of stored data, blockwise checksums are used for security purposes,

wherein in the case of a faulty block of data, the faulty block of data is once more transferred from the memory.

22. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein the local coil arrangement is a magnetic resonance tomography local coil arrangement, and

wherein the antenna element is a magnetic resonance tomography antenna element.

23. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 3, wherein the device configured for the transmission of the stored digitized signals comprises a Bluetooth antenna.

24. The local coil arrangement as claimed in claim 4, wherein the device configured for the transmission of the stored digitized signals comprises a USB port, a coaxial cable connection, or the USB port and the coaxial cable connection.

25. A method for the storage of signals in a local coil arrangement for a magnetic resonance tomography system, the method comprising:

receiving, with an antenna element, signals transmitted from an object under examinations;

converting, with at least one A/D converter, analog signals received with the antenna element into digitized signals; and

storing the digitized signals in a memory in the local coil arrangement.