MR imaging providing tissue/blood contrast image
AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
InventorMitsue Miyazaki
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system includes an ECG detector for the patient object being imaged and an element for performing an MRI pulse sequence. An imaging unit defined by the pulse sequence is longer in temporal length than one heart beat represented by the EGG signal. An MR signal is acquired from the object in response to the pulse sequence and an MR image based on the acquired MR signal is produced. A plurality of divided MT pulses can be applied instead of the conventional single MT pulse. In this case, an SE-system pulse sequence having a shorter echo train spacing is used, to generate sounds by applying gradient pulses incorporated in an imaging pulse sequence so as to automatically instruct a patient to perform an intermittent breath hold during three-dimensional scanning.
Claims16
A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system providing an MR image of an imaging region of an object, said system comprising,
- an MT (magnetization transfer) pulse applying unit configured to apply an MT pulse to the object so as to cause an MT effect in the imaging region, the MT pulse consisting of a plurality of divided MT pulses applied sequentially in time, a flip angle of each divided MT pulse being 90 to 100 degrees, and a region to be excited by the MT pulse spatially including the imaging region;
- a gradient spoiler pulse applying unit configured to apply a gradient spoiler pulse to the object after applying the MT pulse;
- a scanning unit configured to scan the imaging region with a pulse sequence to acquire an MR signal from the imaging region after applying the gradient spoiler pulse;
- and
- an image producing unit configured to produce the MR image using the acquired MR signal.
A magnetic resonance imaging method of providing an MR (magnetic resonance) image of an imaging region of an object, the method comprising the steps of:
- applying an MT (magnetization transfer) pulse to the object so as to cause an MT effect in the imaging region, the MT pulse consisting of a plurality of divided MT pulses applied sequentially in time, a flip angle of each divided MT pulse being 90 to 100 degrees, and a region to be excited by the MT pulse spatially including the imaging region;
- applying a gradient spoiler pulse to the object after applying the MT pulse;
- scanning the imaging region with a pulse sequence to acquire an MR signal from the imaging region after applying the gradient spoiler pulse;
- and
- producing the MR image using the acquired MR signal.
A magnetic resonance imaging method comprising, in the following sequence:
- applying at least one MT pulse to an object imaging region;
- applying at least one gradient spoiler pulse to said object imaging region;
- acquiring MR image data from said object imaging region;
- and
- producing an image using said acquired MR image data
- wherein said at least one MT pulse comprises a plurality of divided MT pulses, each having a duration shorter than the duration of a slice selective MT pulse.
A magnetic resonance imaging method comprising, in the following sequence:
- applying at least one MT pulse to an object imaging region;
- applying at least one gradient spoiler pulse to said object imaging region;
- acquiring MR image data from said object imaging region;
- and
- producing an image using said acquired MR image data
- wherein said at least one MT pulse comprises a plurality of divided MT pulses, each having a duration no greater than approximately 1300 μsec.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.