Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and method of setting slice-area/slice-volume orientation at each moved couch position
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus comprising:
- an MRI observation-point arranging unit that arranges and defines plural operator designated observation points on a previously obtained MRI positioning image on an MRI display device, each operator designated observation point indicating a portion of an object which is to be included in a slice volume of a later performed diagnostic MRI scan;
a scanning-condition receiving unit that receives data specifying (a) a number of couch position movements on which said object is placed during the later diagnostic MRI scanning and (b) a size of the slice volume which is to be imaged at each couch position;
a slice-volume setting unit that sets orientation of the slice volume in order to include a maximum number of said operator designated observation points therewithin at each position to which the couch is moved, based on the previously arranged operator designated observation points and the previously received scanning conditions; and
an MRI diagnostic scanning unit that subsequently scans the object at each of the multiple couch positions, based on the respectively corresponding slice volume set by the slice-volume setting unit and outputs scanned MR image data of each said slice volume at its respectively corresponding orientation and couch position.
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Abstract
An observation-point arranging unit arranges an observation point indicating a portion to be included in a slice area on a positioning image displayed on a display device. A scanning-condition receiving unit receives a specification of a scanning condition including number of movements of a couch on which an object is placed during scanning and a size of the slice area. A slice-area setting unit sets the slice area including the observation point for each position to which the couch is to be moved, based on the observation point and the scanning condition. A scanning unit scans the object multiple times while moving the couch, based on the slice area.
30 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus comprising:
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an MRI observation-point arranging unit that arranges and defines plural operator designated observation points on a previously obtained MRI positioning image on an MRI display device, each operator designated observation point indicating a portion of an object which is to be included in a slice volume of a later performed diagnostic MRI scan; a scanning-condition receiving unit that receives data specifying (a) a number of couch position movements on which said object is placed during the later diagnostic MRI scanning and (b) a size of the slice volume which is to be imaged at each couch position; a slice-volume setting unit that sets orientation of the slice volume in order to include a maximum number of said operator designated observation points therewithin at each position to which the couch is moved, based on the previously arranged operator designated observation points and the previously received scanning conditions; and an MRI diagnostic scanning unit that subsequently scans the object at each of the multiple couch positions, based on the respectively corresponding slice volume set by the slice-volume setting unit and outputs scanned MR image data of each said slice volume at its respectively corresponding orientation and couch position. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus comprising:
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a characteristic-information acquiring unit that acquires characteristic information representing anatomical characteristics of an object from a previously obtained MRI positioning image of the object; a scanning-condition determining unit that determines scanning conditions including (a) a number of movements of a couch position on which the object will be placed during subsequent diagnostic MRI scanning and (b) a size of a slice volume which is to be imaged at each couch position, based on the characteristic anatomical information previously acquired by the characteristic-information acquiring unit; a slice-volume setting unit that automatically sets the slice-volume orientation at each couch position to which the couch is moved in order to optimally include portions of said anatomical characteristics therewithin corresponding to the characteristic information acquired by the characteristic-information acquiring unit at each position to which the couch is moved, based on the scanning conditions determined by the scanning-condition determining unit; and an MRI diagnostic scanning unit that subsequently scans the object at each of the multiple couch positions, based on the respectively corresponding slice-volume set by the slice-volume setting unit and outputs scanned MR image data of each said slice-volume at its respectively corresponding orientation and couch position. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method of setting the orientation of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) slice-volume, said method comprising:
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arranging and defining plural operator designated observation points on a previously obtained MRI positioning image displayed on an MRI display device, each operator designated observation point indicating a portion to be included in a slice-volume for a later performed diagnostic MRI scan; receiving specification of scanning conditions including (a) a number of couch position movements on which an object is placed during the later diagnostic MRI scanning and (b) a size of the slice volume which is to be imaged at each couch position; setting the slice volume orientation at each couch position in order to include a maximum possible number of said operator designated observation points therewithin at each couch position, based on the arranged operator designated observation points and the received scanning conditions; performing diagnostic MRI scanning of the object at each of said multiple couch positions, based on the respectively corresponding set slice volume for that couch position; and outputting scanned MR image data of each said slice-volume at its respectively corresponding orientation and couch position.
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25. A method of setting orientation of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) slice-volumes, said method comprising:
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acquiring characteristic information representing anatomical characteristics of an object from a previously obtained MRI positioning image of the object; determining scanning conditions including (a) a number of movements of a couch position on which the object is placed during subsequent diagnostic MRI scanning and (b) a size of an MRI slice-volume which is to be imaged at each couch position, based on the previously acquired characteristic anatomical information; automatically setting the slice-volume orientation for each couch position in order to optimally include portions of said anatomical characteristics therewithin corresponding to the characteristic information acquired by the characteristic-information acquiring unit at each position to which the couch is moved, based on the determined scanning conditions for that couch position; performing diagnostic MRI scanning of the object at each of the multiple couch positions, based on the respectively corresponding set slice volume; and outputting scanned MR image data of each said slice-volume at its respectively corresponding orientation and couch position.
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Specification