MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING (MRI) SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20140210465A1
• Filed: 10/28/2013
• Published: 07/31/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: YI, Jae-mock, KIM, Young-beom, RYU, Yeun-chul
• Granted Patent: US 9,696,395 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 324/309
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/3415 comprising arrays of sub-coils , i.e. phased-array coils with flexible receiver channels
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/3635 Multi-frequency operation

Abstract

Provided are apparatuses and methods for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method includes applying radio frequency (RF) pulses to an object in a magnetic field, the RF pulses having different frequency bands for each of at least two types of nucleus in the object; applying predetermined pulse sequences for each type of nucleus to the object; receiving magnetic resonance signals emitted by each nucleus in response to the RF pulses and the predetermined pulse sequences; and generating an image of the object based on the received magnetic resonance signals.

Claims

1. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method comprising:

applying radio frequency (RF) pulses to an object in a magnetic field, the RF pulses having different frequency bands for each of at least two types of nucleus in the object;

applying predetermined pulse sequences for each type of nucleus to the object;

receiving magnetic resonance signals emitted by each nucleus in response to the RF pulses and the predetermined pulse sequences; and

generating an image of the object based on the received magnetic resonance signals.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying of the RF pulses comprises applying the RF pulses for each type of nucleus through each channel of multi-channel RF transmitting (Tx) coils.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying of the RF pulses comprises simultaneously applying the RF pulses through multi-channel RF transmitting (Tx) coils.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the magnetic resonance signals comprises receiving the magnetic resonance signals for each type of nucleus, through each channel of multi-channel RF receiving (Rx) coils.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the magnetic resonance signals comprises:

receiving the magnetic resonance signals through RF receiving (Rx) coils; and

separating the received magnetic resonance signals into a plurality of magnetic resonance signals corresponding to each type of nucleus, based on frequency bands of the received magnetic resonance signals.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the multi-channel RF Rx coils have a form of fractals.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the multi-channel RF Rx coils have a form of fractals.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a frequency band corresponding to each type of nucleus is determined based on an intensity of a static magnetic field applied to the object and a gyromagnetic ratio of each types of nucleus.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having thereon a program to executed the method of claim 1.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined pulse sequences comprises at least one of a frequency encoding pulse or a phase encoding pulse.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the phase encoding pulse comprises at least one of a phase encoding pulse along the direction of a Y-axis or a phase encoding pulse along the direction of an X-axis.

12. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus comprising:

a controller configured to determine pulse sequences applied to an object placed in a magnetic field;

a radio frequency (RF) transmitting (Tx) coil configured to apply RF pulses having different frequency bands for each of at least two different type of nucleus of the object;

an RF receiving (Rx) coil configured to receive magnetic resonance signals emitted by each type of nucleus in response to the RF pulses and the pulse sequences; and

a signal processor configured to process the magnetic resonance signals received from the RF Rx coil.

13. The MRI apparatus of claim 12, wherein the RF Tx coil comprises multi-channel RF Tx coils, and the RF Tx coil is configured to apply the RF pulses for each type of nucleus through each channel of the multi-channel RF Tx coils.

14. The MRI apparatus of claim 12, wherein the RF Tx coil comprises multi-channel RF Tx coils, and the multi-channel RF Tx coils are configured to simultaneously apply the RF pulses having different frequency bands corresponding to each type of nucleus.

15. The MRI apparatus of claim 12, wherein the RF Rx coil comprises multi-channel RF Rx coils, and

the RF Rx coil is configured to receive the magnetic resonance signals for each type of nucleus through each channel of the multi-channel RF Rx coils.

16. The MRI apparatus of claim 12, wherein the RF Rx coil comprises multi-channel RF Rx coils,

the RF Rx coil receives the magnetic resonance signals through the multi-channel RF Rx coils, and

the signal processor is further configured to separate the received magnetic resonance signals into a plurality of magnetic resonance signals corresponding to each type of nucleus, based on frequency bands of the received magnetic resonance signals.

17. The MRI apparatus of claim 15, wherein the multi-channel RF Rx coils have a form of fractals.

18. The MRI apparatus of claim 16, wherein the multi-channel RF Rx coils have a form of fractals.

19. The MRI apparatus of claim 16, the signal processor separates the received magnetic resonance signals into a plurality of magnetic resonance signals using filters.

20. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system comprising:

an MRI apparatus configured to apply radio frequency (RF) pulses having different frequency bands for each of at least two type of nucleus to an object in a magnetic field, to apply predetermined pulse sequences for each type of nucleus, and to receive magnetic resonance signals emitted by each type of nucleus in response to the RF pulses and the predetermined pulse sequences; and

an image processing device configured to generate an image of the object based on the received magnetic resonance signals.