US 2010/0060276 A1 · SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TISSUE POINT TRACKING USING MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING

Abstract

A system and method for MR based tracking of a tissue point includes a RF coil assembly configured to emit RF pulse sequences and a system control coupled to the RF coil assembly. The system control is programmed to cause the RF coil assembly to emit a first RF pulse comprising a first pair of two-dimensional (2D) spatially selective beams, each of the beams being directed to a respective tagging location in the subject of interest and wherein the tagging locations are equidistant from a pre-determined point-of-interest. The system control is further programmed to acquire a first series of MR images from a subject of interest, identify the first pair of 2D spatially selective beams in each MR image in the first series of MR images, and track a position of the point-of-interest based on the identified 2D spatially selective beams in the first series of MR images.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus comprising:

a plurality of gradient coils positioned about a bore of a magnet;
an RF coil assembly coupled to a pulse generator to emit RF pulse sequences and arranged to receive resulting MR signals from a subject of interest;
and
a system control coupled to the plurality of gradient coils and the RF coil assembly, the system control programmed to:
cause the RF coil assembly to emit a first RF pulse comprising a first pair of two-dimensional (2D) spatially selective beams, each of the beams being directed to a respective tagging location in the subject of interest and wherein the tagging locations are equidistant from a pre-determined point-of-interest;
acquire a first series of MR images from the subject of interest;
identify the first pair of 2D spatially selective beams in each MR image in the first series of MR images;
and
track a position of the point-of-interest based on the identified 2D spatially selective beams in the first series of MR images.

6 more elements

A method for tracking a target point using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) comprising:

identifying a target point in a subject of interest;
emitting a first tagging RF pulse to a first set of tagging locations positioned equidistant from and on opposite sides of the target point;
acquiring a first set of MR images from the subject of interest tracking a position of the first set of tagging locations over the first set of MR images;
and
determining a location for the target point in each of the acquired MR images based on the tracked positions of the first set of tagging locations;
wherein the first tagging RF pulse comprises a first two-dimensional (2D) pencil beam and a second two-dimensional (2D) pencil beam, each of the first and second 2D pencil beams directed to a respective tagging location in the first set of tagging locations.

3 more elements

A computer readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon and representing a sequence of instructions that when executed by a computer causes the computer to:

cause transmission of a pair of pencil beam RF pulses positioned about a point-of-interest located at a mid-point between the pair of pencil beam RF pulses;
acquire a plurality of magnetic resonance (MR) images during the transmission of the pair of pencil beam RF pulses;
track a location of saturation points generated by the pair of pencil beam RF pulses over the plurality of MR images;
and
determine a shift in location of the point-of-interest in each of the plurality of MR images based on the location of the saturation points.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and method for tissue point tracking using magnetic resonance imaging

Life of this patent

System and method for tissue point tracking using magnetic resonance imaging

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims23