Method and device for controlling image data acquisition and image reconstruction

• US 8,073,225 B2
• Filed: 06/09/2006
• Issued: 12/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Siemens Healthcare GMBH (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Hagen, Ulrich, Heid, Oliver, Kluge, Thomas, Vester, Markus
• Primary Examiner(s): Bhatnagar, Anand
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHEN, XUEMEI G
• Application Number:
  US11/450,631
• Publication Number:
  US 20060285735A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,006 Days
• Field of Search: 382/128, 382/131, 345/629, 717/144, 717/132, 703/115, 714/38
• US Class Current: 382/131
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/3621 NMR receivers or demodulators, e.g. preamplifiers, means for frequency modulation of the MR signal using a digital down converter, means for analog to digital conversion [ADC] or for filtering or processing of the MR signal such as bandpass filtering, resampling, decimation or interpolation
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 33/54 Signal processing systems, e.g. using pulse sequences ; Generation or control of pulse sequences; Operator console
• 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: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/40 for processing medical images, e.g. editing

Abstract

In a method and a device for optimization of a combined system for the acquisition of magnetic resonance tomographic measurement data and an image reconstruction process, the image reconstruction process is already executed during the acquisition of the measurement data, by the calculation process being deconstructed into calculation packets, and rules are defined that establish which requirements must be met for the execution of the respective calculation packet. The calculation process is reorganized into a workflow structure based on the calculation packets and the rules. The calculation process is controlled using the generated workflow structure synchronized to the acquisition process. The rules entirely describe the calculation process, i.e. inclusive of all calculation packets and their logical dependencies. The stability of the calculation process is thus entirely independent of the chronological order of the measurement data acquisition.

Claims

1. A method for computerized optimization of a combined data acquisition and calculation procedure, comprising the steps of:

acquiring medical image data, selected from the group consisting of magnetic resonance image data, ultrasound image data, and computed tomography image data, in a data acquisition process comprising a plurality of measurement data sequences;

operating on said medical image data to generate an image from said measurement data by performing an electronic calculation based on the acquired medical image data in an image reconstruction calculation process, while acquiring further medical image data in said data acquisition process in parallel with said calculation process;

electronically deconstructing said calculation process into a plurality of calculation packets;

for each of said calculation packets, electronically defining a rule set that designates logical dependencies among all of said calculation packets, said logical dependencies comprising at least one of requirements that must be fulfilled before a calculation packet can be executed, and an amount of said medical image data, represented by one or more of said measurement data sequences, that must be acquired before a calculation packet can be executed;

dynamically electronically restructuring said calculation process into a workflow structure, based on said calculation packets and said rule sets, in which said acquisition of said measurement data sequences and said calculation packets are interleaved; and

controlling said acquisition of said medical image data in said measurement data sequences interleaved with said calculation packets in said calculation process using the workflow structure of said calculation process, so that said measurement data sequences are available, as needed, in said workflow structure, and automatically executing the respective calculation packets at respective earliest points in time permitted by the rule set defined therefore.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of electronically defining a rule set for each calculation packet comprises:

electronically defining exactly two synchronization points consisting of a blocker that monitors all of said requirements for the execution of the calculation packet and all of said logical dependencies of the calculation packet, and a detector that detects execution of the calculation packet, and wherein the step of automatically executing the respective calculation packet comprises automatically executing the respective calculation packet as soon as said blocker for that calculation packet is not blocked.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said data acquisition process proceeds in a sequence and at a speed, and wherein the step of controlling said calculation process comprises controlling said calculation process independently of said sequence and speed of said data acquisition.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising employing an arbitrary calculation algorithm for executing said calculation process.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said calculation process has an associated underlying problem to be solved by said calculation process, and wherein the step of electronically defining a rule set for each calculation packet comprises electronically defining respective rule sets that, in combination, represent a complete description of said problem.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising electronically dividing said calculation packets among a plurality of threads proceeding in parallel in said calculation process.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising dividing said data acquisition process into a plurality of threads proceeding in parallel.

8. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of controlling said calculation process comprises controlling said calculation process in a self-organizing manner with no external synchronization between said data acquisition data process and said calculation process.

9. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising conducting said calculation process with a computer architecture selected from the group consisting of single processor architectures and multi-processor architectures.

10. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising executing the steps of deconstructing said calculation process, electronically defining a rule set for each calculation packet, restructuring the calculation process, and controlling the calculation process automatically in a sequence.

11. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising electronically generating a visual display of said workflow structure in a graphical format selected from the group consisting of a dependency tree and a table.

12. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising electronically storing intermediate results of at least one of said data acquisition process and said calculation process in a buffer storage, and using the intermediate results in said buffer storage for real-time control of said data acquisition process.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with programming instructions, said storage medium being loaded into a computerized control and processing system of a medical data acquisition system, said programming instructions causing said computerized control and processing system to:

operate said medical data acquisition system to acquire medical image data, selected from the group consisting of magnetic resonance image data, ultrasound image data, and computed tomography image data, in a data acquisition process comprising a plurality of measurement data sequences;

operate on said medical image data to generate an image from said measurement data by performing an electronic calculation based on the acquired medical image data in an image reconstruction calculation process, while acquiring further medical image data in said data acquisition process in parallel with said calculation process;

electronically deconstruct said calculation process into a plurality of calculation packets;

for each of said calculation packets, electronically define a rule set that designates logical dependencies among all of said calculation packets, said logical dependencies comprising at least one of requirements that must be fulfilled before a calculation packet can be executed, and an amount of said medical image data, represented by one or more of said measurement data sequences, that must be acquired before a calculation packet can be executed;

dynamically electronically restructure said calculation process into a workflow structure, based on said calculation packets and said rule sets, in which said acquisition of said measurement data sequences and said calculation packets are interleaved; and

control said acquisition of said medical image data in said measurement data sequences interleaved with said calculation packets in said calculation process using the workflow structure of said calculation process, so that said measurement data sequences are available, as needed, in said workflow structure, and automatically execute the respective calculation packets at respective earliest points in time permitted by the rule set defined therefore.

14. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium as claimed in claim 13, wherein said programming instructions further cause said computerized control and processing system to:

for each of said calculation packets, identify exactly two synchronization points that define all logical dependencies among said plurality of calculation packets and that, when fulfilled, permit a calculation packet to be executed; and

define a programmed association between each calculation packet and the two synchronization points thereof.

15. A computerized device that optimizes a combined data acquisition and calculation procedure, wherein medical image data, selected from the group consisting of magnetic resonance image data, ultrasound image data, and computed tomography image data, are acquired in a data acquisition process comprising a plurality of measurement data sequences, and wherein the acquired measurement data in the measurement data sequences are operated on by performing an electronic image reconstruction calculation in a calculation process to generate an image from the measurement data while acquiring further measurement data in the data acquisition process in parallel with the calculation process, said device comprising:

a processor configured to electronically deconstruct said calculation process into a plurality of calculation packets;

said processor being configured, for each of said calculation packets, to electronically define a rule set that designates logical dependencies among all of said calculation packets, said logical dependencies comprising at least one of requirements that must be fulfilled before a calculation packet can be executed, and an amount of said medical image data represented by one or more of said measurement data sequences, that must be acquired before a calculation packet can be executed;

said processor being configured to dynamically electronically restructure said calculation process into a workflow structure, based on said calculation packets and said rule sets, in which said acquisition of said measurement data sequences and said calculation packets are interleaved; and

a control unit in communication with said processor, said control unit being configured to control said acquisition of said medical image data in said measurement data sequences interleaved with said calculation packets in said calculation process using the workflow structure of said calculation process, so that said measurement data sequences are available, as needed, in said workflow structure, and said processor being configured to automatically execute the respective calculation packets at respective earliest points in time permitted by the rule set defined therefore.