General Electric Company

Children's Hospital Medical Center

Other

University of California

The Johns Hopkins University

The Brigham and Women's Hospital, Inc.

Charles L Dumoulin

Robert David Darrow

Steven P Souza

Ronald Dean Watkins

Harvey E Cline

Christopher Judson Hardy

Wolfgang Manfred Loew

Randy Otto Giaquinto

Randy Otto John Giaquinto

William A Edelstein

Kenneth William Rohling

John F Schenck

Richard Philip Mallozzi

William J Adams

Paul Arthur Bottomley

Sayed-Amr A El-Hamamsy

Peter B Roemer

William E Lorensen

Yudong Zhu

Erika Schneider

Lorinda R Opsahl

Renee Guhde

Ronald Gene Pratt

Radislav Alexandrovich Potyrailo

William Guy Morris

Christopher Allen Nafis

Egidijus Edward Uzgiris

William D Barber

Cheryl Margaret Surman

Siegwalt Ludke

Howard Roscoe Hart, Jr

Joseph Edward Piel, Jr

Timothy Patrick Kelliher

Ron Kikinis

Ehud J Schmidt

Kirby Gannett Vosburgh

Dimitrios Vatis

Icko Eric Iben

Samuel M Blumenfeld

Richard L St Peters

W Thomas Dixon

Neil David Johnson

Icko Eric Timothy Iben

Tsz-ho Tse

Richard W Katzberg

Stephen A Ash

Yu Li

Steven P Suza

Patrick Gross

Charles John Rossi, Jr

David Egidio Altobelli

Michael Edward Moran

Philip Trefor Jones

David Keren

Benjamin Assif

Nissim Ben Hamo

Randy Giaquinto

William Morris

Apparatus and methods to create and/or enhance thermal gradients in a body of cryogenic liquid contained in a vessel that is actively cooled by a cryocooler is provided. With such apparatus and/or methods temperature in one part of the body of liquid can be made lower than the temperature in another part of the body of liquid. Thus, the apparatus and/or methods enables cryogenic operation of a device at a temperature that is below that of the boiling point of the cryogenic liquid while simultaneously allowing the liquid to be at a pressure greater than atmospheric pressure to obviate the risk of air entering the cryogenic space. These apparatus and/or methods may find use in cryogenic systems used for magnetic resonance imaging, cyclotrons for radioisotope generation, cyclotrons for radiation therapy, high-energy particle accelerators, magnet systems for crystal growth and the like.

Apparatus and system to enhance thermal gradients in cryogenic devices

Apparatus and methods to add heat capacity to a cryogenic apparatus such as a superconducting magnet are provided. A body of liquid cryogen having a relatively high heat capacity is stored at cryogenic temperatures in a low temperature vessel that is thermally linked to a cold mass within the cryogenic apparatus. The low temperature vessel is connected to a manifold system located on the exterior of the cryogenic apparatus. The manifold is further connected to a room temperature vessel so that gas is allowed to freely move between the low temperature and room temperature vessels. In one exemplary mode of operation, it is possible to simultaneously operate the system with a full capacity of liquid cryogen in the low temperature vessel, operate the system with a maximum pressure substantially below 757 atmospheres regardless of the temperature of the low temperature vessel, operate the system with positive pressure regardless of the temperature of the low temperature vessel, and cycle the temperature of the low temperature vessel between room and cryogenic temperatures without releasing gas from the system.

Apparatus and system to maximize heat capacity in cryogenic devices

A patient table adapted for use in association with an MR scanner for neonatal infants is provided. The patient table has an extendable patient bed attached to and extendable from the patient table. The patient bed may be at least partially inserted into an MR scanner without requiring the patient table to enter the MR scanner. A transport mechanism is on the underside of the patient table so that it may be readily moved over the floor on which it rests. The patient table includes a latching mechanism that may operate to releasably attach the patient table to a patient table docking assembly. The docking assembly is operative to selectively move the patient table towards, into and away from the MR scanner.

MRI transfer station and dock

The present disclosure relates to a transfer cart suitable for use in association with an MR scanner. The transfer cart may include a transfer table assembly coupled to the support frame such that the transfer table assembly and the horizontal support structure portion of the support frame extend substantially perpendicularly from the vertical support structure of the support frame and in substantially parallel planes to each other. The transfer table assembly may be maintained at substantially the same vertical level of a scanning bore of an MR scanner. The transfer cart may include a frame designed to dock with the MR scanner.

MRI transfer assembly

A system for guiding a medical intervention is disclosed. The system employs a device guide that operates on the surface of a sphere that is centered on a selected target.

System and method for guiding an invasive device

A birdcage coil includes: (a) a pair of conductive end rings, each having a generally domed shape in axial cross section; (b) a plurality of conductive, elongated rungs extending between the pair of conductive end rings in an axial direction; and (c) an LC delay circuit incorporated into the pair of rings and the plurality of elongated rungs, where the LC delay circuit includes a plurality of capacitive elements and a plurality of inductive elements. In the present invention circumferential spacing between adjacent elongated rungs is varied to improve homogeneity of the volume excitation. Alternatively, or in addition, LC circuit capacitance and/or inductance values are varied to improve homogeneity of the volume excitation.

Asymmetric birdcage coil for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

A birdcage coil for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, the birdcage coil includes: a relatively planar birdcage coil section, including a pair of relatively planar ring portions and a plurality of conductive, elongated rungs extending between the pair of relatively planar ring portions; and a relatively domed birdcage coil section, including a pair of relatively domed ring portions and a plurality of conductive, elongated rungs extending between the pair of relatively domed ring portions. The relatively domed birdcage coil section is releasably coupled to the relatively planar birdcage coil section. In an embodiment, at least two sets of the relatively planar and domed birdcage coil sections are provided, where each of the at least two sets is configured to a different MRI application.

Asymmetric birdcage coil

The present disclosure relates to a transfer table assembly and cart apparatus suitable for use in association with an MR scanner. The transfer table assembly may include a transfer table base and a supporting mechanism coupling the transfer table base to a transfer table cart in a cantilevered fashion at substantially the same level of a scanning bore of an MR scanner. The transfer table cart may include a frame designed to dock with the MR scanner.

MRI transfer table assembly and cart apparatus

A birdcage coil for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system is provided. The birdcage coil includes: (a) a pair of conductive end rings, each having a generally domed shape in axial cross section; (b) a plurality of conductive, elongated rungs extending between the pair of conductive end rings in an axial direction; and (c) an LC delay circuit incorporated into the pair of rings and the plurality of elongated rungs, where the LC delay circuit includes a plurality of capacitive elements and a plurality of inductive elements. In the present invention circumferential spacing between adjacent elongated rungs is varied to improve homogeneity of the volume excitation. Alternatively, or in addition, LC circuit capacitance and/or inductance values are varied to improve homogeneity of the volume excitation.

A magnetic resonance (MR) signal detector grid assembly adapted for detection of signals in a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus is disclosed. The MR signal detector grid assembly may include a non-resonant grid of a plurality of wire elements and a plurality of detector elements. At least one end of a selected wire element may be electrically attached to an end of at least one other selected wire element. At least one of the detector elements may be configured to detect an MR signal induced on a wire element in the non-resonant grid. The plurality of wire elements may be substantially in the same plane, and the plane may be warped into an arbitrary three-dimensional surface. The three-dimensional surface may have a shape that is cylindrical, partially cylindrical, and/or saddle-shaped. The plurality of wire elements may form a rectilinear grid, a hexagonal grid, a triangular grid, and/or a pseudo-random grid.

Magnetic resonance signal detector grid assemblies for magnetic resonance imaging

A system and method for monitoring patient physiological information during an MRI scan sequence is provided. The system includes a monitoring device configured to sense physiological information from a patient. The physiological information may include electrocardiograph signals, electro-anatomical mapping signals, or other information concerning a physiological condition of the patient. The system further includes a control circuit connected to receive signals from the monitoring device and to coordinate output of the electrode during an MRI scan.

System and method for acquiring patient physiological information during an MRI scan

An MR loop coil design incorporates a balun into the loop coil. With this approach, some components of the coil may be simultaneously part of the imaging coil and the balun. Further, with this approach the number of components used to build an MR coil may be reduced, which may result in a reduction in cost, weight and size. This MR loop coil design may also be used to build phased array coils from the smaller loop size. Such an approach may use small feeder circuit boards oriented generally perpendicular to the coil elements to reduce interactions between the feeder boards and the coils. Such feeder boards may also be made smaller than conventional feeder circuits because the integrated balun coil design may reduce the number of components needed to create balanced coils in the array.

Loop coil with integrated balun for MR applications

The present disclosure describes examples of magnetic resonance (MR) detector that may replace conventional MR imaging coil arrays. The present disclosure generally describes an example coil design approach that may reduce the number of components for MR imaging devices and may eliminate the need of tissue matching. In some examples, this approach implements a non-resonant grid in which MR-induced currents are allowed to flow unconstrained over the grid (unlike conventional phased array coils in which current is constrained to flow within each loop). Current in each element of the grid may be detected with inductively-coupled pickup loops, which may be attached to independent receiver channels of the MR imaging system. In one example, individual integrated balun pickup coils may be inductively coupled to each grid element. Other connection arrangements, however, may be employed if desired.

Detector grid arrays for MR imaging

Growing community of inventors

Ballston Lake, NY, United States of America

Charles L Dumoulin