Automatic Capture Of Cardiac Motion By Pre-Scan And Automated Data Evaluation For Determination Of Motionless Periods Within The RR-Interval

A system for determining time periods of minimal motion of a physiologic organ relative to a trigger of a physiologic triggering signal and within a triggering cycle, the system comprising

• a physiologic monitoring device configured to monitor the physiologic triggering signal associated with a patient;
• an MRI scanner configured to use an MRI cine pulse sequence to acquire a temporal series of projections across a region of interest comprising an organ of interest;
• and
• a data processor configured to analyze the temporal series of projections to determine one or more times relative to a trigger provided by the physiologic triggering signal during which motion of the organ of interest is below a predefined threshold, wherein motion of the organ of interest is assessed by a process comprising:
• (a) creating a signal intensity versus time curve of one pixel or an average of multiple pixels included in the temporal series of projections,
• (b) applying a noise filter and normalization to the signal intensity versus time curve to yield a filtered and normalized time curve,
• (c) determining the temporal derivative of the filtered and normalized time curve to yield a motion-analog function, and
• (d) evaluating the absolute value of the motion-analog function for being smaller than the predefined threshold to determine the one or more times.

An article of manufacture for determining time periods of minimal motion of a physiologic organ relative to a trigger of a physiologic triggering signal and within a triggering cycle, the article of manufacture comprising a computer-readable, non-transitory medium holding computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising:

• using an MRI cine pulse sequence to acquire a temporal series of projections across a region of interest comprising an organ of interest;
• and
• analyzing the temporal series of projections to determine one or more times relative to a trigger provided by the physiologic triggering signal during which motion of the organ of interest is below a predefined threshold, wherein motion of the organ of interest is assessed by a process comprising:
• (a) creating a signal intensity versus time curve of one pixel or an average of multiple pixels included in the temporal series of projections,
• (b) applying a noise filter and normalization to the signal intensity versus time curve to yield a filtered and normalized time curve,
• (c) determining the temporal derivative of the filtered and normalized time curve to yield a motion-analog function, and
• (d) evaluating the absolute value of the motion-analog function for being smaller than the predefined threshold to determine the one or more times.