Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Instrumentarium Corporation

Picker Nordstar Corporation

Profound Medical Inc.

Picker International, Inc.

Nycomed Imaging as

Picker Nordstar Oy

Gosta J Ehnholm

Shunmugavelu D Sokka

Ilmari V Kinanen

Ian R Young

Gordon D DeMeester

Erkki Tapani Vahala

Ajay Anand

Emil George Radulescu

Max Oskar Köhler

Teuvo Vaara

Balasundara I Raju

I A Julius Koskela

Ramon Q Erkamp

Robert G Gylling

Marc Paul Saes

Balasundar Iyyavu Raju

Juha Virtanen

Klaes Golman

Raimo E Sepponen

Shriram Sethuraman

Ib Leunbach

Lars-Goran Wistrand

Stefan Petersson

Georg Hansson

Paulus Cornelius Hendrikus Adrianus Haans

Charles Mougenot

Matti A Hakala

Matti Lindstrom

Erkki T Vahala

Tapio Uimonen

Seppo T Pekonen

John S Petersson

Iipo Asko Julius Koskela

When planning magnetic resonance (MR) guided high intensity focused ultrasonic (HIFU) therapy, HIFU transducer element parameters are optimized as a function of 3D MR data describing a size, shape, and position of a region of interest (ROI) () and any obstructions () between the HIFU transducer elements and the ROI (). Transducer element phases and amplitudes are adjusted to maximize HIFU radiation delivery to the ROI () while minimizing delivery to the obstruction (). Additionally or alternatively, transducer elements are selectively deactivated if the obstruction () is positioned between the ROI () and a given transducer element.

High intensity focused ultrasound transducer optimization

A probe including a shaft on which an ultrasound element is mounted, an outer sheath and an acoustic membrane surrounding the shaft and the ultrasound element such that the shaft and ultrasound element are rotatable therein. Passages may supply a cooling and acoustic coupling fluid to an inlet and outlet adjacent the acoustic element to cool the acoustic element and fill a volume between the acoustic element and the acoustic sheath with the fluid. A balloon may be mounted on the probe to be selectively inflated to fix a position of the probe. A drain for urine and other bodily fluids may be provided through the probe.

Transurethral ultrasound probe for treatment of prostate

A therapy system includes a therapy module to perform successive deposits of energy in a target zone. The therapy system further includes a control module configured to, prior to deposits of energy, produce an a priori estimate of the induced heating. A thermometry module is configured to measure temperature in a measurement field. The induced heating may be derived based on a tissue model from the settings of a therapy module. The therapy module includes a high-intensity focused ultrasound transmitter. A magnetic resonance examination system configured for thermometry is employed as the thermometry module.

Therapy system for depositing energy

A device () positions an ultrasound transducer () for ultrasound therapy to focus a treatment beam () emitted by the ultrasound transducer () at tissue of interest. The device () includes at least three anchors () which support the ultrasound transducer (). The device () further includes at least three extendable structures (), each with a coupling () that supports a corresponding one of the at least three anchors (). A drive mechanism () of the device () independently drives each of the at least three extendable structures () towards or away from a subject to move the ultrasound transducer () within at least three degrees of freedom.

Device for positioning an ultrasound transducer inside a MR scanner

A medical apparatus including an ultrasound transmitter and receiver system for acquiring ultrasound data descriptive of the speed of ultrasound along at least two paths. The medical apparatus further includes a medical imaging system for acquiring medical image data and a memory containing instructions that causes the processor to acquire the medical image data. The instructions further cause the processor to acquire the ultrasound data. The instructions further cause the processor to segment the medical image data into at least two tissue types. The instructions further causes the processor to determine at least two distances corresponding to the at least two paths in the subject. The instructions further cause the processor to calculate the speed of ultrasound in the at least two tissue types.

Apparatus, method and computer program product for calculating the speed of ultrasound in at least two tissue types

The invention relates to a therapeutic system which comprises an ultrasound therapy unit () arranged to insonify at least a portion of a body () of a patient with high intensity ultrasound and a MR imaging unit () arranged to acquire MR signals from the portion of the body () and to reconstruct a thermographic MR image from the MR signals. It is an object of the invention to enable MR guided high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment, in which temperature values within critical anatomic regions containing fat can be monitored. The invention proposes that the therapeutic system further comprises an ultrasound diagnostic unit () which is arranged to acquire ultrasound signals from the portion of the body () and to derive at least one local temperature value from the ultrasound signals.

MR imaging guided theraphy

A therapeutic system, comprising: a MR imaging unit arranged to acquire MR signals from a patient in an examination volume, and a thermal treatment unit for depositing thermal energy within tissue of the patient. The system is arranged for: initiating a thermal treatment by heating the tissue at a focus within the examination volume selectively acquiring MR signals from a first image plane, including the focus, reconstructing a thermographic MR image from the MR signals acquired from the first image plane, computing a baseline thermographic MR image from a temperature distribution within at least one second image plane, moving the focus to a new position within the examination volume, changing the position and/or orientation of the first image plane corresponding to the new position of the focus, repeating the acquiring and reconstructing steps, wherein the baseline thermographic MR image is used for thermographic image reconstruction in a subsequent reconstructing step.

MR imaging guided therapy

A therapy system includes a therapy module, e.g., a high-intensity-focused ultrasound transmitter, to perform successive deposits of energy in a target zone. The successive deposits being separated by a cool down period. The therapy system further includes a thermometry module, e.g. by a magnetic resonance examination system, configured for thermometry to measure temperature in a measurement field. A control module regulates the cool down period in dependence of the measured off-focus maximum temperature during the energy deposit preceding the cool down period.

A radio frequency antenna comprising a resonant pickup circuit () arranged to pick up a magnetic resonance signal, an analog-to-digital converter () arranged to convert the magnetic resonance signal to digital data, and a frequency converter arranged to convert a primary band of frequencies of the digital data. By upshifting the frequency of the transmitted bit-stream, it is possible to RF-trap the transmission channel () by simple high-pass filtering techniques. In case the transmitted bit pattern has frequency components that approach the resonance frequency, an encoding technique like Manchester encoding can be used to eliminate unwanted signals.

RF antenna with integrated electronics

A coils array (') including a plurality of coils () receives magnetic resonance signals from an examination region of a magnetic resonance imaging scanner (). Each coil has mixing circuitry () that frequency-shifts the received magnetic resonance signal to a selected transmission channel frequency. The coils array further includes combining circuitry () that combines the frequency-shifted magnetic resonance signals to produce an analog frequency domain multiplexed transmission signal output of the coils array. Receiver electronics (&#x2033;) receive the analog frequency domain multiplexed transmission signal from the coils array. The receiver electronics include an analog-to-digital converter () that digitizes the analog frequency domain multiplexed transmission signal and digital signal processing circuitry () that processes the digital frequency domain multiplexed transmission signal to recover digitized signals corresponding to the magnetic resonance signals received by the plurality of coils.

Methods and apparatuses for connecting receive coils in magnetic resonance imaging scanners

The Overhauser effect is a technique for increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of nuclear magnetic resonance signals. Electron spin resonance is set up for example in a contrast agent injected into a patient by means of a transmitter at the end of a probe to excite an area . The excited electrons couple to MR active nuclei and increase the population in the higher energy level. Then, when an NMR signal is transmitted and received via coil , more MR active nuclei return to the ground state and create a bigger, enhanced, signal detected by the coil , hence promoting increased signal-to-noise ratio on an image formed on the monitor . In the invention, the Overhauser effect may be applied to an intra-operative situation by means of probe which is inserted, for example, into a patient in a region of interest. According to a preferred feature, the transmitter is also used for heat treatment by means of oscillator in order to destroy diseased tissue, and the temperature dependence of the enhanced NMR signal, corrected for migration of the contrast agent by the ESR signal reflected back along the central conductor into the detector , is used to control the temperature and hence the heat treatment operation.

Nuclear magnetic resonance apparatus and method

In magnetic resonance imaging apparatus having a resistive electromagnet with a bore r.f. excitation pulse substantially simultaneously excites a number of slices A to D which are phase encoded and frequency encoded in the usual way, the direction of the main field being along the bore of the electromagnet in the direction z. The receive coil consists of an array of coils to which view different spatial regions of the imaging volume and the outputs of which are combined in different ways in order to reduce the number of slice encoding steps in the z-direction needed to distinguish between the slices A to D. Each coil of the array etc. can form part of a two dimensional array in order to reduce the number of phase encoding steps in the phase encode direction.

Magnetic resonance imaging

A magnetic resonance imaging suite is sheathed with plates (32, 34, 36) of iron or other ferrous material. The plates define projections (42, 44, 54, 54', 68) in alignment with each other on opposite ceiling and floor or wall surfaces. A pair of magnetic pole pieces (10, 10'; 50, 50'; 60, 60') are surrounded by superconducting electromagnetic coils (12, 12'; 52, 52'; 62, 62'). The pole pieces are positioned between the ferrous plates in axial alignment. When current flows through the electromagnetic coils, magnetic flux flows between the pole pieces. The ferrous wall sheathing or other ferrous constructions define a flux return path. The pole pieces are magnetically attracted toward each other and are each magnetically mirrored in and attracted toward the adjacent ferrous flux return path. The pole pieces are positioned relative to each other and the ferrous flux return path such that the attraction between the pole pieces is balanced by the attraction between each pole piece and its magnetically mirrored image in the adjacent ferrous material of the flux return path. Optionally, the magnets are selectively extinguished and one or both pole pieces are moved for better access to the patient.

Magnetic resonance imaging system with floating pole pieces

This invention relates to a method of electron spin resonance enhanced magnetic resonance imaging which relies on ex vivo dynamic nuclear polarisation of an MR imaging agent.

Growing community of inventors

Helsinki, Finland

Gosta J Ehnholm