Method and device for simultaneous Tx/Rx in strongly coupled MRI coil loops
AssigneeLife Services, LLC
InventorScott M. Schillak
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for processing radio-frequency (RF) signals suitable for magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI) and/or magnetic-resonance spectroscopy (MRS) from radio-frequency (RF) coils that have strongly-coupled coil loop pairs, each pair including a transmit loop and a receive loop, wherein the transmit loop and the receive loop are of equal sizes and shapes and in close proximity to each other, and wherein a suitable attenuated and phase-adjusted version of a transmit pulse is subtracted from a receive signal obtained from tissue being examined to improve signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the received signal.
Claims20
A method for processing radio-frequency (RF) signals suitable for magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI) and/or magnetic-resonance spectroscopy (MRS) from radio-frequency (RF) coils that have strongly-coupled coil loops to improve signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the received signal obtained from tissue being examined, the method comprising:
- providing a housing, radio-frequency (RF) transmitter-receiver electronics mounted to the housing, and a first RF loop pair mounted to the housing, wherein the first RF loop pair includes a transmit antenna loop and a receive antenna loop that is strongly coupled to, and substantially of equal shape and size as, the transmit antenna loop;
- splitting a first transmit signal pulse from the RF transmitter-receiver electronics into a first portion and a second portion;
- adjusting an amplitude and a phase of the second portion of the first transmit signal pulse to obtain a first amplitude-and-phase-adjusted signal pulse;
- transmitting the first portion of the first transmit signal pulse using the transmit antenna loop of the first RF loop pair;
- receiving a first resulting signal using the receive antenna loop of the first RF loop pair, the first resulting signal including signals from the transmit loop of the first RF loop pair and from the tissue being examined;
- combining the first amplitude-and-phase-adjusted signal pulse and the received first resulting signal in a combiner to obtain a first net received signal;
- and
- generating an MRI output image based at least in part on the first net received signal.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon for causing a suitably programmed information processor to execute a method for processing radio-frequency (RF) signals suitable for magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI) and/or magnetic-resonance spectroscopy (MRS) from radio-frequency (RF) coils that have strongly-coupled coil loops to improve signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the received signal obtained from tissue being examined, in a system that includes a housing, a transmitter-receiver-electronics unit mounted on the housing, and plurality of RF loop pairs mounted to the housing, wherein the plurality of RF loop pairs includes a first RF loop pair, wherein the first RF loop pair includes a transmit antenna loop, and a receive antenna loop that is strongly coupled to, and substantially of equal shape and size as, the transmit antenna loop, and wherein a first transmit signal pulse is split into a first portion and a second portion;
- wherein the method comprises:
- adjusting an amplitude and a phase of the second portion of the first transmit signal pulse to obtain a first amplitude-and-phase-adjusted signal pulse;
- transmitting the first portion of the transmit signal pulse using the transmit antenna loop of the first RF loop pair;
- receiving a first resulting signal using the receive antenna loop of the first RF loop pair, wherein the receive antenna loop is strongly coupled to the transmit antenna loop, and wherein the first resulting signal includes signals from the transmit loop and from the tissue being examined;
- combining the first amplitude-and-phase-adjusted signal and the first received resulting signal to obtain a first net received signal;
- and
- generating an MRI output image based at least in part on the first net received signal.
An apparatus for processing radio-frequency (RF) signals suitable for magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI) and/or magnetic-resonance spectroscopy (MRS) from radio-frequency (RF) coils that have strongly-coupled coil loops to improve signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the received signal obtained from tissue being examined, the apparatus comprising:
- a housing;
- radio-frequency (RF) transmitter-receiver electronics mounted to the housing, wherein the RF transmitter-receiver-electronics includes a first RF transmitter unit and a first RF receiver unit, wherein the first RF transmitter unit generates a first transmit signal that is split into a first portion of the first transmit signal and a second portion of the first transmit signal;
- a first RF loop pair mounted to the housing, wherein the first RF loop pair includes a transmit antenna loop operably connected to transmit the first portion of the first transmit signal and a receive antenna loop that is strongly coupled to, and substantially of equal shape and size as, the transmit antenna loop and configured to receive signals from the transmit antenna loop of the first RF loop pair and from the tissue being examined;
- and
- combiner electronics operatively coupled to obtain signals from the receive loop of the first RF loop pair and to obtain the second portion of the first transmit signal and configured to combine the second portion of the first transmit signal and the signals from the receive loop of the first RF loop pair to form a first net received signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.