Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation

Fumitoshi Kojima

Mitsue Miyazaki

Yoshitomo Sakakura

Kohei Adachi

Kazuto Nogami

Tomoyuki Yoshida

Masateru Iwasa

Masahiko Hatanaka

Junichi Makita

Mitchio Mitomi

Yasuyuki Ogikubo

A feedforward control unit predicts the maximum value of the temperature of a gradient coil based on a power duty and a scan time of a pulse sequence, and a present temperature of the gradient coil. When the maximum value exceeds a predetermined upper limit, the feedforward control unit then instructs a temperature adjusting unit to start a water circulation in a chiller at the start of a prescan, and the temperature adjusting unit starts the water circulation based on the instruction.

Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and gradient coil cooling control method

An MRI apparatus in which a magnetic field is applied to a subject, a receiver coil attached to the subject receives a magnetic resonance signal generated in the subject, and a magnetic resonance image of the subject is generated from the magnetic resonance signal, the apparatus comprising a gantry which comprises a magnetic-field generating unit for generating the magnetic field, a determining unit which determines the type of the receiver coil, a first memory unit which stores data items representing a plurality of methods of attaching various receiver coils, each method designated for one receiver coil, and a monitor which is provided on the gantry and which displays one of the methods stored in the first memory unit, which pertains to the receiver coil whose type has been determined by the determining unit.

MRI apparatus which automatically determines and displays operating instructions

A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes a storage unit configured to store positional information about positional relationships between a first ROI and a reference image, and a ROI setting unit configured to set a second ROI to determine a position of a tomographic image based on the positional information.

Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and method of controlling magnetic resonance imaging apparatus

Time-Of-Flight (TOF) MRI techniques are used to enhance blood flows into one of a pair of images for a given plane or slice of a patent's body. Arithmetic subtraction of such images produces a resultant image of substantially only blood flows since images of fat or other tissue are thus nulled out of the resultant image. All basic MRI sequences (e.g., FE, SE, etc.) can be used in conjunction with a pre-pulse on additional sub-sequences in a plane displaced from the objective plane to be imaged. Both arterial and venous blood flows can be imaged (separately or together in one resultant image). Color coding can be used in the resultant images to distinguish blood flow directions and/or velocities.

MR imaging utilizing the time of flight effect

A system for magnetic resonance imaging is provided in which a prepulse is first applied to an object being examined placed in a static magnetic field for suppressing an MR signal from fat of the object. Then a pulse sequence including an RF pulse for multi-slice imaging of a plurality of slicing planes is applied to the object for acquiring image data. The system comprises an element for performing a shimming increasing uniformity of the static magnetic field, an element for detecting, every one of the slicing planes, an offset value offsetting a frequency shift of a spectrum distribution caused by turbulence in higher-order components of the static magnetic field, and an element for correcting, every one of the slicing planes, a frequency range of the prepulse in accordance with the offset value detected. The correcting element corrects a frequency of the RF pulse in compliance with the detected offset value.

System for magnetic resonance imaging

A magnetic resonance imaging method and system utilizing a magnetization transfer contrast pulse that includes executing a first sequence including the application of the magnetization transfer contrast pulse to an examinee and executing a second sequence for acquiring a magnetic resonance angiography image data related to a predetermined imaging plane. The first sequence further includes the step of applying a slice gradient magnetic field for spatially selectively exciting a predetermined magnetization transfer contrast excitation plane at substantially the same timing as that of the magnetization transfer contrast pulse. A predetermined gradient magnetic field is applied by a gradient magnetic field application means in a manner superimposing upon a predetermined static magnetic field. An RF transmitting/receiving means is arranged for transmitting an RF pulse to an examinee and receiving a magnetic resonance signal from the examinee. The gradient magnetic field application means and the RF transmitting/receiving means is controlled by a control means in accordance with the predetermined pulse sequence.

Method and system for carrying out magnetic resonance imaging using the

A method of magnetic resonance imaging comprises, as one aspect, the steps of performing a first sequence including a step for applying a binomial pulse and performing a second sequence for collecting magnetic resonance (MR) image data. The binomial pulse application step, the central frequency of the binomial pulse is offset by a predetermined offset amount toward the high frequency side with respect to the resonance frequency of protons contained in water and the binomial pulse is applied.

Method and system for magnetic resonance imaging

A gradient field is applied in a coronal scheme such that a slice region along the flowing direction of a blood vessel, i.e., along the body axis is set as an imaging area. Of regions adjacent to the imaging region in the body axis direction, a region including a blood vessel as a target of imaging (in this case, an artery) through which the blood flows toward the imaging region is not excited, but only the imaging region is selectively excited. Then, since a spin in the artery is supplied to the imaging region in a fresh state, the image of this spin is formed with a signal level higher than that of a stationary spin remaining in the imaging region. Since the presaturated blood in the artery in the imaging region is returned at its peripheral portion to flow through the vein, the spin in the vein is already saturated, its signal level is lower than that of the spin in the artery, and the image of this spin is not formed. As a result, the image of the state of the artery can be formed within a short period of time.

Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and method for forming an image of

A magnetic resonance diagnosing apparatus has a static magnetic field magnet, a gradient magnetic field coil, a transmitter/receiver probe, a Fourier transformer, a discriminator, a DC offset changer, and a controller. The Fourier transformer transforms a time-region magnetic resonance signal acquired by the transmitter/receiver probe to a frequency-region signal in accordance with Fourier transformation. The discriminator discriminates whether the line width of the frequency-region magnetic resonance signal is not more than a predetermined value. Based on the line width of the frequency-region magnetic resonance signal, the direct current offset changer adjusts the current to be supplied at least to the gradient magnetic field coil so as to correct the offset of the static magnetic field.

Magnetic resonance diagnosing apparatus

In a spectroscopic imaging apparatus utilizing the magnetic resonance phenomenon, a spectroscopic image of phosphorus-31 within a slice portion of a biological body under examination is displayed in a materix form. Furthermore, a proton image of the slice portion is displayed in the same matrix form. In addition, a spectroscopic graph for a selected matrix element of the proton image is displayed.

Spectroscopic imaging apparatus capable of displaying proton image

Selective excitation is used to excite to resonance nuclear spins in a predetermined planar slice of a target. The received NMR signals are then used to correct non-homogenity of a static magnetic field based upon the calculated spin-spin relaxation time T.sub.2 * of the observed NMR signal.

Field gradient correction apparatus for compensating static field

In the NMR apparatus the resonant conditions may be kept constant by adjusting the strength of the static magnetic field. The echo signal that is induced under the specific conditions is processed so as to obtain the deviation of the resonant frequency in the correction circuit. The shift of the given static magnetic field is calculated based upon the deviation of the resonant frequency. The DC energizing current for the H.sub.O power supply is varied based upon the magnetic field shift so as to maintain the NMR phenomenon at the desirable resonant conditions.

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Otawara, Japan

Fumitoshi Kojima