Method and system of MR imaging with reduced FSE cusp artifacts

• US 7,952,351 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2007
• Issued: 05/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: King, Kevin F., Hinks, Richard Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Shrivastav; Brij B
• Application Number:
  US11/781,025
• Publication Number:
  US 20090039882A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,411 Days
• Field of Search: 324300-345, 600407-445
• US Class Current: 324/307
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/5611 Parallel magnetic resonance imaging, e.g. sensitivity encoding [SENSE], simultaneous acquisition of spatial harmonics [SMASH], unaliasing by Fourier encoding of the overlaps using the temporal dimension [UNFOLD], k-t-broad-use linear acquisition speed-up technique [k-t-BLAST], k-t-SENSE structural details of arrays of sub-coils G01R33/3415
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/5615 Echo train techniques involving acquiring plural, differently encoded, echo signals after one RF excitation, e.g. using gradient refocusing in echo planar imaging [EPI], RF refocusing in rapid acquisition with relaxation enhancement [RARE] or using both RF and gradient refocusing in gradient and spin echo imaging [GRASE]
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/5617 using RF refocusing, e.g. RARE
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/56518 due to eddy currents, e.g. caused by switching of the gradient magnetic field

Abstract

Coil sensitivity of a receive coil to a gradient null location is measured and, from the measurements, a coil calibration value is determined and used to modify the MR data acquired with that receive coil to reduce the adverse effects of gradient nulling on MR images. Coil sensitivity values are determined for each coil of a coil array and the data for each coil is respectively weighted. An image that is substantially free of gradient null artifacts or ghosting is then reconstructed from the weighted data.

Claims

1. An MR imaging system comprising:

a plurality of gradient coils positioned about a bore of a main magnet and configured to impress gradient fields;

an RF coil assembly having a plurality of coil elements;

an RF transceiver controlled by a pulse module to transmit RF pulses via the RF coil assembly and receive MR signals; and

a controller programmed to;

determine a coil sensitivity at an imaging volume and a coil sensitivity at a gradient field null for each of the plurality of coil elements;

input MR signals acquired by the plurality of coil elements;

determine magnetization values from the MR signals, using the coil sensitivities at the imaging volume, the coil sensitivities at the gradient field null, and an artifact function; and

reconstruct an image based on the magnetization values.

2. The MR imaging system of claim 1 wherein the controller is further programmed to determine the magnetization values using a SENSE technique.

3. The MR imaging system of claim 2 wherein the controller is further programmed to apply the SENSE technique to the MR signals acquired by the plurality of coil elements as a two fold aliasing of an object which includes the magnetization values in one half of a FOV and the artifact function in another half of the FOV.

4. The MR imaging system of claim 1 wherein the artifact function is a point spread function determined by a temporal modulation pattern and a phase encoding order of a pulse sequence used to acquire the MR signals.

5. The MR imaging system of claim 1 wherein the controller is further programmed to determine the coil sensitivities during a parallel imaging sequence using a self-calibration technique, and wherein a FOV of the sequence is large enough in a phase encoding direction to substantially prevent gradient null signal aliasing.

6. The MR imaging system of claim 1 wherein the controller is further programmed to apply a regularization to the MR signals, wherein the regularization utilizes a priori information about a location of the gradient field null to decrease a noise amplification resulting from parallel imaging reconstruction of the magnetization values.

7. The MR imaging system of claim 1 wherein the controller is further programmed to instruct the pulse module to transmit a spin echo pulse sequence adapted to produce a relatively high signal strength for the gradient null region.

8. A method of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging comprising:

executing a parallel imaging sequence to obtain MR data;

correcting the MR data for artifacts caused by a gradient null region; and

reconstructing and displaying an image from the corrected MR data.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising obtaining coil sensitivity data for a field of view (FOV) and the gradient null region, for an array of receive coils.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising obtaining the coil sensitivity data during the parallel imaging sequence using a self-calibration technique and wherein the FOV is large enough in a phase encoding direction to substantially prevent gradient null aliasing.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising obtaining the coil sensitivity data using a spin echo pulse sequence adapted to produce a relatively high signal strength for the gradient null region.

12. The method of claim 8 further comprising correcting the MR data for artifacts caused more than one gradient null region.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein correcting the MR data includes separating a substantially correctly-encoded magnetization signal from an artifact signal induced by the gradient null region.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising weighting the substantially correctly-encoded magnetization signal by a function of coil sensitivity.

15. The method of claim 8 further comprising determining a FOV for the parallel imaging sequence that is small enough to exclude the gradient null region.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a set of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

obtain multi-channel MR data indicative of apparent magnetization values in a field of view (FOV);

separate the multi-channel MR data indicative of the apparent magnetization values into generally correctly-encoded magnetization values and a gradient null artifact signal;

reconstruct a set of image data, with reduced gradient null artifacts, from the generally correctly-encoded magnetization values and store the set of image data in a memory.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein the instructions further cause the computer to obtain coil sensitivity data for a FOV and for a gradient null location.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the coil sensitivity data is derived from data acquired via at least one of a calibration scan and a self-calibration imaging sequence.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein the gradient null artifact signal represents a point spread function.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein the FOV is a no-phase wrap FOV.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein the set of instructions further causes the computer to reconstruct the set of image data according to a SENSE technique.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 21 wherein the SENSE technique is adapted to process the apparent magnetization values as a two-fold aliasing of an object over a doubled FOV.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 22 wherein the two-fold aliasing of the object includes the generally correctly-encoded magnetization values in one half of the doubled FOV and the gradient null artifact signal in another half of the doubled FOV.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 wherein the FOV is small enough to exclude a gradient null region.