Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Fingerprinting Tissue Classification And Image Segmentation
First Claim
1. A method, comprising:
- accessing a set of known signal evolutions;
accessing an acquired nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signal, where the acquired NMR signal is acquired from a volume that contains one or more resonant species that simultaneously produced individual NMR signals in response to magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) excitation;
finding a selected entry in the set of known signals that matches the acquired NMR signal;
identifying one or more magnetic resonance (MR) parameters for the volume based on stored MR parameters associated with the selected entry, where the one or more MR parameters include T1 relaxation associated with the resonant species, T2 relaxation associated with the resonant species, off-resonance relaxation associated with the resonant species, and diffusion weighted relaxation associated with the resonant species, T1 being spin-lattice relaxation, T2 being spin-spin relaxation, andassigning the volume that produced the acquired NMR signal to a cluster in a plurality of clusters based on the one or more MR parameters.
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Abstract
Apparatus, methods, and other embodiments associated with NMR fingerprinting are described. One example NMR apparatus includes an NMR logic that repetitively and variably samples a (k, t, E) space associated with an object to acquire a set of NMR signals that are associated with different points in the (k, t, E) space. Sampling is performed with t and/or E varying in a non-constant way. The NMR apparatus may also include a signal logic that produces an NMR signal evolution from the NMR signals, and a characterization logic that characterizes a resonant species in the object as a result of comparing acquired signals to reference signals. The NMR signal evolution may be assigned to a cluster based on the characterization of the resonant species. Cluster overlay maps may be produced simultaneously based, at least in part, on the clustering. The clusters may be associated with different tissue types.
59 Citations
40 Claims
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1. A method, comprising:
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accessing a set of known signal evolutions; accessing an acquired nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signal, where the acquired NMR signal is acquired from a volume that contains one or more resonant species that simultaneously produced individual NMR signals in response to magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) excitation; finding a selected entry in the set of known signals that matches the acquired NMR signal; identifying one or more magnetic resonance (MR) parameters for the volume based on stored MR parameters associated with the selected entry, where the one or more MR parameters include T1 relaxation associated with the resonant species, T2 relaxation associated with the resonant species, off-resonance relaxation associated with the resonant species, and diffusion weighted relaxation associated with the resonant species, T1 being spin-lattice relaxation, T2 being spin-spin relaxation, and assigning the volume that produced the acquired NMR signal to a cluster in a plurality of clusters based on the one or more MR parameters. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. An apparatus, comprising:
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a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) logic that receives a first set of data from a magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) apparatus that repetitively and variably samples a (k, t, E) space associated with an object to acquire a set of NMR signals, where members of the first set of data are associated with different points in the (k, t, E) space, where t is time and E includes at least one of, T1, T2, and one other parameter, T1 being spin-lattice relaxation, and T2 being spin-spin relaxation, and where one or more of, t and E, vary non-linearly; a signal logic that produces an NMR signal evolution from the first set of data; a matching logic that selects from a collection of stored signal evolutions a stored signal evolution that most closely matches the NMR signal evolution; a characterization logic that characterizes the object based, at least in part, on one or more magnetic resonance (MR) parameters associated with the selected signal evolution, and a cluster logic that assigns a location in the object that produced the first set of data to a cluster selected from a plurality of clusters, where the plurality of clusters represent Voronoi groups produced by a k-means analysis, and where the plurality of clusters segment an MR parameter data space associated with the object. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus, comprising:
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a data store that stores a dictionary of magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) signal evolutions; a collection logic that collects a received signal evolution from a tissue experiencing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in response to an MRF excitation applied to the tissue by the MRI apparatus; a selection logic that selects a member of the dictionary that correlates with the signal evolution; a characterization logic that identifies, from the member, one or more magnetic resonance (MR) parameters associated with the tissue, and an identification logic that identifies, from the one or more MR parameters, a tissue type associated with the tissue. - View Dependent Claims (40)
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Specification