Non-contrast MRI with differentiation of ischemic, infarct and normal tissue
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system comprising:
- an MRI gantry having static and gradient magnet assemblies and at least one radio frequency (RF) coil defining an image volume;
MRI control circuits connected to control components within said MRI gantry and configured to effect MRI data acquisition sequences of RF and gradient magnetic pulses which elicit MRI signals, to acquire and process said elicited MRI signals into MR image data in conjunction (a) with use of an initial spatially selective nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) RF tag pulse (tag-on) in a data acquisition subsequence and (b) without use of an initial spatially selective NMR RF tag pulse (tag-off) in a data acquisition subsequence;
said MRI control circuits being configured to(a) acquire multi-dimensional MR k-space data from patient tissue using multiple said tag-on and tag-off data acquisition subsequences for each of multiple time to inversion (TI) intervals without using an injected contrast agent;
(b) reconstruct said acquired k-space data into a series of spatial domain tag-on and tag-off MR image data, each having different TI intervals;
(c) perform an analysis of TI dependence of signal intensity based on the series of spatial domain MR image data by (1) subtracting said tag-off and tag-on MR image data for each of plural TI intervals for each of plural regions of interest (ROI) to produce difference image data, each said ROI being a multi-pixel segment representing part of a segmented region of said patient tissue and (2) generating, for each of the plural ROIs, based on combining together the difference image data for plural pixels within that ROI, a separate profile of signal intensity versus time data representing blood perfusion versus time for that ROI, the difference image data for plural pixels within that ROI being obtained by adding together, averaging, or combining pixels within the multi-pixel segment, wherein for each of the plural ROIs, a peak flow time and/or a peak blood flow magnitude, or lack thereof, of the function differentiates between normal, ischemic and infarct tissues; and
(d) store and display a result of the analysis by plotting a plurality of functions, each of the plotted plurality of functions being the generated function corresponding to a respective one of the plural ROIs.
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Abstract
Elicited MRI signals are processed into MR image data in conjunction (a) with use of an initial spatially-selective RF tag pulse (tag-on) and (b) without use of an initial spatially-selective NMR RF tag pulse (tag-off) in respectively corresponding data acquisition subsequences. Multi-dimensional tag-on and tag-off data acquisition subsequences are used for each of plural time-to-inversion (TI) intervals without using an injected contrast agent. Acquired image data sets are subtracted for each TI interval to produce difference values as a function of time representing blood perfusion for the ROI that differentiates between normal, ischemic and infarct tissues.
7 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system comprising:
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an MRI gantry having static and gradient magnet assemblies and at least one radio frequency (RF) coil defining an image volume; MRI control circuits connected to control components within said MRI gantry and configured to effect MRI data acquisition sequences of RF and gradient magnetic pulses which elicit MRI signals, to acquire and process said elicited MRI signals into MR image data in conjunction (a) with use of an initial spatially selective nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) RF tag pulse (tag-on) in a data acquisition subsequence and (b) without use of an initial spatially selective NMR RF tag pulse (tag-off) in a data acquisition subsequence; said MRI control circuits being configured to (a) acquire multi-dimensional MR k-space data from patient tissue using multiple said tag-on and tag-off data acquisition subsequences for each of multiple time to inversion (TI) intervals without using an injected contrast agent; (b) reconstruct said acquired k-space data into a series of spatial domain tag-on and tag-off MR image data, each having different TI intervals; (c) perform an analysis of TI dependence of signal intensity based on the series of spatial domain MR image data by (1) subtracting said tag-off and tag-on MR image data for each of plural TI intervals for each of plural regions of interest (ROI) to produce difference image data, each said ROI being a multi-pixel segment representing part of a segmented region of said patient tissue and (2) generating, for each of the plural ROIs, based on combining together the difference image data for plural pixels within that ROI, a separate profile of signal intensity versus time data representing blood perfusion versus time for that ROI, the difference image data for plural pixels within that ROI being obtained by adding together, averaging, or combining pixels within the multi-pixel segment, wherein for each of the plural ROIs, a peak flow time and/or a peak blood flow magnitude, or lack thereof, of the function differentiates between normal, ischemic and infarct tissues; and (d) store and display a result of the analysis by plotting a plurality of functions, each of the plotted plurality of functions being the generated function corresponding to a respective one of the plural ROIs. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method comprising:
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(a) acquiring multi-dimensional MR k-space data from patient tissue using multiple data acquisition subsequences including at least one data acquisition subsequence with use of a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) RF tag pulse (tag-on) and at least one data acquisition subsequence without use of a NMR RF tag pulse (tag-off) for each of multiple time to inversion (TI) intervals without using an injected contrast agent; (b) reconstructing said acquired k-space data into a series of spatial domain MR image data; (c) performing an analysis of TI dependence of signal intensity versus time based on the series of MR image data by (1) subtracting said acquired tag-off and tag-on MR image data for each of plural TI intervals for each of plural regions of interest (ROI) to produce difference image data, each said ROI being a multi-pixel segment representing part of a segmented region of said patient tissue and (2) generating, for each of the plural ROIs, based on combining together the difference image data for plural pixels within that ROI, the difference image data for plural pixels within that ROI being obtained by adding together, averaging, or combining pixels within the multi-pixel segment, a separate profile of signal intensity versus time data representing blood perfusion versus time for that ROI, wherein for each of the plural ROIs, a peak blood flow time and/or a peak blood flow magnitude, or lack thereof, of the function differentiates between normal, ischemic and infarct myocardia tissues; and (d) storing and displaying a result of the analysis image data having values which are different for normal, ischemic and infarct tissues, by plotting a plurality of functions, each of the plotted plurality of functions being the generated function corresponding to a respective one of the plural ROIs.
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Specification