SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AUTOMATED DETECTION IN MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGES

• US 20190033415A1
• Filed: 08/29/2018
• Published: 01/31/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hyperfine Operations Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Hyperfine Research, Inc.
• Inventors: Sofka, Michal, Rothberg, Jonathan M., Charvat, Gregory L., Ralston, Tyler S.
• Granted Patent: US 10,816,629 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2576/026 for the brain
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0042 for the brain
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/055 involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4064 Evaluating the brain A61B5/031, A61B5/369, A61B5/14553 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7267 involving training the classification device
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/3806 Open magnet assemblies for improved access to the sample, e.g. C-type or U-type magnets
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/383 using permanent magnets
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/445 MR involving a non-standard magnetic field B0, e.g. of low magnitude as in the earth's magnetic field or in nanoTesla spectroscopy, comprising a polarizing magnetic field for pre-polarisation, B0 with a temporal variation of its magnitude or direction such as field cycling of B0 or rotation of the direction of B0, or spatially inhomogeneous B0 like in fringe-field MR or in stray-field imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/4806 Functional imaging of brain activation
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/483 with selection of signals or spectra from particular regions of the volume, e.g. in vivo spectroscopy
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/5608 Data processing and visualization specially adapted for MR, e.g. for feature analysis and pattern recognition on the basis of measured MR data, segmentation of measured MR data, edge contour detection on the basis of measured MR data, for enhancing measured MR data in terms of signal-to-noise ratio by means of noise filtering or apodization, for enhancing measured MR data in terms of resolution by means for deblurring, windowing, zero filling, or generation of gray-scaled images, colour-coded images or images displaying vectors instead of pixels image data processing or generation, in general G06T
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/2411 based on the proximity to a decision surface, e.g. support vector machines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/24143 Distances to neighbourhood prototypes, e.g. restricted Coulomb energy networks [RCEN]
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/044 Recurrent networks, e.g. Hopfield networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/045 Combinations of networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10088 Magnetic resonance imaging [MRI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20081 Training; Learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20084 Artificial neural networks [ANN]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20092 Interactive image processing based on input by user
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20212 Image combination
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30016 : Brain
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30101 : Blood vessel; Artery; Vein; Vascular
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30172 : Centreline of tubular or elongated structure
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 : Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0016 : involving temporal comparison
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/764 : using classification, e.g. of video objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/82 : using neural networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/031 : of internal organs
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/40 : for processing medical images, e.g. editing
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 : for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients

Abstract

Some aspects include a method of detecting change in biological subject matter of a patient positioned within a low-field magnetic resonance imaging device, the method comprising: while the patient remains positioned within the low-field magnetic resonance device: acquiring first magnetic resonance image data of a portion of the patient; acquiring second magnetic resonance image data of the portion of the patient subsequent to acquiring the first magnetic resonance image data; aligning the first magnetic resonance image data and the second magnetic resonance image data; and comparing the aligned first magnetic resonance image data and second magnetic resonance image data to detect at least one change in the biological subject matter of the portion of the patient.

Claims

1. A method of detecting change in biological subject matter of a patient positioned within a low-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device, the method comprising:

while the patient remains positioned within the low-field MRI device;

acquiring first magnetic resonance image data of a portion of the patient;

acquiring second magnetic resonance image data of the portion of the patient subsequent to acquiring the first magnetic resonance image data;

aligning the first magnetic resonance image data and the second magnetic resonance image data; and

comparing the aligned first magnetic resonance image data and second magnetic resonance image data to detect at least one change in the biological subject matter of the portion of the patient.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising modifying at least one acquisition parameter based on the at least one change in the biological subject matter of the portion of the patient.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising acquiring third magnetic resonance image data of the portion of the patient using the modified at least one acquisition parameter.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one acquisition parameter is modified so to change at least one of resolution, signal-to-noise ratio and field of view of the third magnetic resonance image data.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising repeating acquiring magnetic resonance image data to obtain a sequence of frames of magnetic resonance image data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the sequence of frames is acquired over a period of time greater than an hour while the patient remains positioned within the low-field magnetic resonance imaging device.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the sequence of frames is acquired over a period of time greater than two hours while the patient remains positioned within the low-field magnetic resonance imaging device.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the sequence of frames is acquired over a period of time greater than five hours while the patient remains positioned within the low-field magnetic resonance imaging device.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

aligning at least two of the sequence of frames; and

comparing the aligned at least two frames to detect at least one change in the biological subject matter of the portion of the patient.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one change is used to compute a change in volume and/or quantity of biological subject matter between the at least two frames in the sequence of frames.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein a first frame in the sequence of frames corresponds to magnetic resonance image data from a first region of the portion of the patient and a second frame in the sequence of frames corresponds to magnetic resonance image data from a sub-region of the first region.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the sub-region is selected based on where changes in the biologic subject matter are detected.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising detecting a rate of change of biological subject matter of the portion of the patient.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the aligned first magnetic resonance image data and second magnetic resonance image data to detect at least one change in the biological subject matter of the portion of the patient, comprises:

providing the aligned first magnetic resonance image data as input to a trained statistical classifier to obtain corresponding first output; and

providing the aligned second magnetic resonance image data input to the trained statistical classifier to obtain corresponding second output.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the comparing further comprises:

determining a change in the size of a hemorrhage using the first output and the second output.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the comparing further comprises:

determining a degree of change in a midline shift using the first output and the second output.

17. A low-field magnetic resonance imaging device configured to detecting change in biological subject matter of a patient positioned with the low-field magnetic resonance imaging device, comprising:

a plurality of magnetic components, including;

a B0 magnet configured to produce, at least in part, a B0 magnetic field;

at least one gradient magnet configured to spatially encode magnetic resonance data; and

at least one radio frequency coil configured to stimulate a magnetic resonance response and detect magnetic components configured to, when operated, acquire magnetic resonance image data; and

at least one controller configured to operate the plurality of magnet components to, while the patient remains positioned within the low-field magnetic resonance device, acquire first magnetic resonance image data of a portion of the patient, and acquire second magnetic resonance image data of the portion of the patient subsequent to acquiring the first magnetic resonance image data, the at least one controller further configured to align the first magnetic resonance image data and the second magnetic resonance image data, and compare the aligned first magnetic resonance image data and second magnetic resonance image data to detect at least one change in the biological subject matter of the portion of the patient.

18. The low-field magnetic resonance imaging device of claim 17, wherein the at least one controller is configured to modify at least one acquisition parameter based on the at least one change in the biological subject matter of the portion of the patient.

19. The low-field magnetic resonance imaging device of claim 17, wherein the at least one controller is configured to acquire third magnetic resonance image data of the portion of the patient using the modified at least one acquisition parameter.

20. The low-field magnetic resonance imaging device of claim 19, wherein the at least one acquisition parameter is modified so to change at least one of resolution, signal-to-noise ratio and field of view of the third magnetic resonance image data.

21. The low-field magnetic resonance imaging device of claim 17, wherein the at least one controller is configured to acquire magnetic resonance image data to obtain a sequence of frames of magnetic resonance image data.

22. The low-field magnetic resonance imaging device of claim 21, wherein the sequence of frames is acquired over a period of time greater than an hour while the patient remains positioned within the low-field magnetic resonance imaging device.

23. The low-field magnetic resonance imaging device of claim 21, wherein the sequence of frames is acquired over a period of time greater than two hours while the patient remains positioned within the low-field magnetic resonance imaging device.

24. The low-field magnetic resonance imaging device of claim 21, wherein the sequence of frames is acquired over a period of time greater than five hours while the patient remains positioned within the low-field magnetic resonance imaging device.

25. The low-field magnetic resonance imaging device of claim 21, wherein the at least one controller is configured to:

align at least two of the sequence of frames; and

compare the aligned at least two frames to at least one change in the biological subject matter of the portion of the patient.

26. The low-field magnetic resonance imaging device of claim 25, wherein the at least one change is used to compute a change in volume and/or quantity of biological subject matter between the at least two frames in the sequence of frames.

27. The low-field magnetic resonance imaging device of claim 25, wherein a first frame in the sequence of frames corresponds to magnetic resonance image data from a first region of the portion of the patient and a second frame in the sequence of frames corresponds to magnetic resonance image data from a sub-region of the first region.

28. The low-field magnetic resonance imaging device of claim 27, wherein the sub-region is selected based on where changes in the biologic subject matter are detected.

29. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one computer hardware processor, cause the at least one computer hardware processor to perform a method of detecting change in biological subject matter of a patient positioned within a low-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device, the method comprising:

while the patient remains positioned within the low-field MRI device;

acquiring first magnetic resonance image data of a portion of the patient;

acquiring second magnetic resonance image data of the portion of the patient subsequent to acquiring the first magnetic resonance image data;

aligning the first magnetic resonance image data and the second magnetic resonance image data; and

comparing the aligned first magnetic resonance image data and second magnetic resonance image data to detect at least one change in the biological subject matter of the portion of the patient.

30. A system, comprising:

at least one computer hardware processor; and

at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one computer hardware processor, cause the at least one computer hardware processor to perform a method of detecting change in biological subject matter of a patient positioned within a low-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device, the method comprising;

while the patient remains positioned within the low-field MRI device;

acquiring first magnetic resonance image data of a portion of the patient;

acquiring second magnetic resonance image data of the portion of the patient subsequent to acquiring the first magnetic resonance image data;

aligning the first magnetic resonance image data and the second magnetic resonance image data; and

comparing the aligned first magnetic resonance image data and second magnetic resonance image data to detect at least one change in the biological subject matter of the portion of the patient.