Method and control device to operate a magnetic resonance system
First Claim
1. A method to operate a magnetic resonance tomography system having a magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner that has a radio-frequency (RF) radiator and a gradient coil arrangement comprising:
- operating the RF radiator to excite nuclear spins in a plurality of slices in an examination subject in said magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner at a first time interval by radiating a series of spatially selective RF slice excitation pulses, with each RF slice excitation pulse in said series exciting nuclear spins in a respective slice in said plurality of slices;
operating the RF radiator to emit an RF refocusing pulse in said magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner at a second time interval after a first RF excitation pulse or after a last RF excitation pulse in said series of spatially selective RF slice excitation pulses, and emitting at least one additional RF refocusing pulse at a third time interval after a preceding RF refocusing pulse, with said third interval to being twice as long as said second time interval, and with each of said RF refocusing pulses having a width so as to generate a plurality of chronologically successive separate echo signals for each RF refocusing pulse, with each RF refocusing pulse being simultaneously effective in multiple excited slices among said plurality of slices;
operating the gradient coil arrangement to read out said echo signals for each refocusing pulse under a readout gradient in a corresponding number of readout windows; and
providing the echo signals that have been read out to a processor and in said processor, converting said echo signals into magnetic resonance data and making said magnetic resonance data available from said processor in electronic form, as a data file.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In a method and a control device for operation of a magnetic resonance tomography system to generate image data, multiple of slices in an examination subject are initially excited at a first time interval by a respective RF slice excitation pulse of a series of spatially selective slice excitation pulses. An RF refocusing pulse is then emitted at a second time interval after the first excitation pulse or after the last excitation pulse of the series of RF slice excitation pulses. At least one additional RF refocusing pulse is emitted at a third time interval after a preceding RF refocusing pulse. The third time interval is twice as long as the second time interval. The width of the RF refocusing pulses is selected to generate a number of chronologically separate echo signals per RF refocusing pulse for simultaneous refocusing of all excited slices.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method to operate a magnetic resonance tomography system having a magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner that has a radio-frequency (RF) radiator and a gradient coil arrangement comprising:
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operating the RF radiator to excite nuclear spins in a plurality of slices in an examination subject in said magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner at a first time interval by radiating a series of spatially selective RF slice excitation pulses, with each RF slice excitation pulse in said series exciting nuclear spins in a respective slice in said plurality of slices; operating the RF radiator to emit an RF refocusing pulse in said magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner at a second time interval after a first RF excitation pulse or after a last RF excitation pulse in said series of spatially selective RF slice excitation pulses, and emitting at least one additional RF refocusing pulse at a third time interval after a preceding RF refocusing pulse, with said third interval to being twice as long as said second time interval, and with each of said RF refocusing pulses having a width so as to generate a plurality of chronologically successive separate echo signals for each RF refocusing pulse, with each RF refocusing pulse being simultaneously effective in multiple excited slices among said plurality of slices; operating the gradient coil arrangement to read out said echo signals for each refocusing pulse under a readout gradient in a corresponding number of readout windows; and providing the echo signals that have been read out to a processor and in said processor, converting said echo signals into magnetic resonance data and making said magnetic resonance data available from said processor in electronic form, as a data file. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A control device to operate a magnetic resonance tomography system comprising:
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a computerized control unit comprising an interface configured to place said control unit in communication with a magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner to provide control signals to said magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner to excite nuclear spins in a plurality of slices in an examination subject in said magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner at a first time interval by radiating a series of spatially selective RF slice excitation pulses, with each RF slice excitation pulse in said series exciting nuclear spins in a respective slice in said plurality of slices; said control unit being configured to cause said data acquisition unit to emit an RF refocusing pulse in said data acquisition scanner at a second time interval after a first RF excitation pulse or after a last RF excitation pulse in said series of spatially selective RF excitation pulses, and to emit at least one additional RF refocusing pulse at a third time interval after a preceding RF refocusing pulse; and said control unit being configured to set said third time interval to be twice as long as said second time interval, and to set a width of each of said RF refocusing pulses so as to generate a plurality of chronologically successive separate echo signals for each RF refocusing pulse, with each RF refocusing pulse being simultaneously effective in multiple excited slices among said plurality of slices.
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15. A magnetic resonance tomography apparatus comprising:
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a magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner; a control computer configured to operate said data acquisition scanner to excite nuclear spins in a plurality of slices in an examination subject in said magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner at a first time interval by radiating a series of spatially selective RF slice excitation pulses, with each RF slice excitation pulse in said series exciting nuclear spins in a respective slice in said plurality of slices; said control computer being configured to operate said data acquisition scanner to emit an RF refocusing pulse in said data acquisition unit at a second time interval after a first RF excitation pulse or after a last RF excitation pulse in said series of spatially selective RF excitation pulses, and to emit at least one additional RF refocusing pulse at a third time interval after a preceding RF refocusing pulse; and said control computer being configured to set said third time interval to be twice as long as said second time interval, and to set a width of each of said RF refocusing pulses so as to generate a plurality of chronologically successive separate echo signals for each RF refocusing pulse, with each RF refocusing pulse being simultaneously effective in multiple excited slices among said plurality of slices.
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16. A non-transitory, computer-readable data storage medium encoded with programming instructions, said storage medium being loaded into a computerized control and evaluation computer system of a magnetic resonance tomography system that also comprises a magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner, said programming instructions causing said control and evaluation computer system to:
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operate said data acquisition scanner to excite nuclear spins in a plurality of slices in an examination subject in said magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner at a first time interval by radiating a series of spatially selective RF slice excitation pulses, with each RF slice excitation pulse in said series exciting nuclear spins in a respective slice in said plurality of slices; operate said data acquisition scanner to emit an RF refocusing pulse in said data acquisition unit at a second time interval after a first RF excitation pulse or after a last RF excitation pulse in said series of spatially selective RF excitation pulses, and to emit at least one additional RF refocusing pulse at a third time interval after a preceding RF refocusing pulse; and set said third time interval to be twice as long as said second time interval, and set a width of each of said RF refocusing pulses so as to generate a plurality of chronologically successive separate echo signals for each RF refocusing pulse, with each RF refocusing pulse being simultaneously effective in multiple excited slices among said plurality of slices.
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Specification