High speed tracking of interventional devices using an MRI system
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsCharles Lucian Dumoulin, Robert David Darrow
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An MRI system acquires NMR tracking data from a tracking coil imbedded in a medical device which is guided by a physician using real time anatomic images produced from image data acquired by the MRI system. A Hadamard magnetic resonance tracking sequence is used to update the tracking coil location which is indicated on the anatomic image. The Hadamard sequence uses four different acquisition, but tracking coil location is updated after each acquisition, using the new acquisition and three previously acquired acquisitions.
Claims13
A method for tracking the location of a device within the field of view of an Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system, the steps comprising:
- a) attaching to the device a means for producing an nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) tracking signal;
- b) acquiring;
- with the MRI system, an NMR tracking data set comprised of a plurality of NMR tracking signals, each tracking signal being acquired with a different tracking measurement pulse sequence;
- c) Fourier transforming the plurality of NMR tracking signals to produce a corresponding plurality of projections;
- d) calculating the location of the device using said plurality of projections;
- e) indicating the location of the device;
- f) re-acquiring, with the MRI system, one of the NMR tracking signals in the NMR tracking data set;
- g) Fourier transforming the re-acquired NMR tracking signal to produce a respective updated projection, said plurality of projections being updated with said respective updated projection;
- h) indicating an updated device location by repeating d) and e);
- and
- i) repeating f), g) and h) to provide a series of updated device location indications and in which all the NMR tracking signals in the NMR tracking data set are periodically re-acquired on a round-robin basis.
A method for tracking the location of a device within the field of view of an Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system, the device being attached to a means for producing an MR tracking signal, the method comprising:
- a) acquiring, with the MRI system, a first Magnetic Resonance (MR) tracking data set comprised of a plurality of MR tracking signals, each tracking signal being acquired with a different tracking measurement pulse sequence;
- b) Fourier transforming each of the plurality of MR tracking signals to produce a respective plurality of projections;
- c) calculating the location of the device using said plurality of projections;
- d) indicating the location of the device;
- e) re-acquiring, with the MRI system, one of the MR tracking signals in the first MR tracking data set;
- f) Fourier transforming the re-acquired MR tracking signal to produce a respective updated projection;
- and,
- g) re-calculating and indicating an updated device location using the updated projection.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.