General Electric Company

Ge Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC

Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research

Josef P Debbins

Richard J Prorok

William James Balloni

Paul Edgar Licato

Lawrence E Ploetz

Mark T Radick

Roshy James Francis

Stephen J Riederer

Jason Andrew Polzin

Robert H Haworth

Christopher Judson Hardy

Robert David Darrow

Graeme Colin McKinnon

Joel P Felmlee

Frederick Joseph Frigo

Michael R Hartley

Bo Pettersson

Kristine Gould

Scott Eugene Trevino

Reed F Busse

Giora Sat

Ajeet Gaddipati

Ranjeeta Singh

Deepa Thomas

A workstation is programmed to operate as an application development system for a medical imaging system. Objects programmed in an object-oriented language are selected from a component library using a visual component assembler which enables them to be dragged from a framework area on a display to a workspace area. Properties of selected components may be edited, and the resulting collection of components may be graphically linked together and saved as an application program.

Graphic application development system for a medical imaging system

The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus that streamlines the process of prescribing and acquiring medical imaging experiments and data processing applications. The present application provides a modular intuitive and guided workflow having a graphical user interface that may be tailored and made singular and unique for each individual application. The user interface implements a guided management tool that incorporates the general principle that user activity is more efficient when it begins in the upper left-hand portion of the screen and proceeds horizontally across the screen moving from left-to-right and top-to-bottom. The user interface incorporates a number of tabs wherein each tab corresponds to a major prescription step. The tabs are aligned vertically along the left side of the user interface and are used to modularize the application workflow.

Method and apparatus for managing workflow in prescribing and processing medical images

A system and method for a hardware configuration and interfacing in a component-based environment for a medical imaging system is disclosed. Specifically, the invention directed to software architecture for the control of medical imaging system hardware is disclosed. The architecture can be logically divided into four elements: a system hardware control to provide system hardware availability information and control, a system configuration control to provide hardware constraint information, an application prescription control to identify hardware capabilities requested by a user-selected application and configure hardware settings for the system hardware, and an application hardware control to enable the application to exert control over the system hardware during execution. The architecture allows application software to be independent from hardware control software.

Hardware configuration and interfacing in a component-based environment for a medical scanner

A method of synchronizing initiation of a magnetic resonance image (MRI) acquisition to the arrival of a contrast agent in a structure of interest, such as an artery, includes repeatedly performing a first MRI scan until the first MRI scan indicates that the contrast agent has arrived. The first MRI scan acquires a three-dimensional MRI data set from the structure of interest. Preferably, the first MRI scan is a partial MRI scan that produces a low resolution image. Once the first MRI scan indicates that the contrast agent has arrived in the structure of interest, a second MRI scan is performed that acquires a second three-dimensional MRI data set from the structure of interest. The second MRI scan is preferably a full MRI scan that produces a full fidelity image. The manner of data acquisition is advantageously the same for both the first MRI scan and the second MRI scan.

Method and system for synchronizing magnetic resonance image acquisition to the arrival of a signal-enhancing contrast agent

A magnetic resonance (MR) imaging system equipped with real-time imaging capability and methods of interactively prescribing geometry to excitation profiles of structure of interest, are disclosed herein. The MR imaging system includes a graphical user interface for displaying and receiving prescription commands, a display screen for displaying MR images and the graphical user interface, and an input device for inputting prescription commands. The MR imaging system allows an operator to prescribe the boundary geometry of a subsequent imaging volume and to rapidly view the prescribed boundary imaging sections prior to committing to the subsequent imaging volume acquisition. The MR imaging system also allows the operator to retrieve boundary geometry of a previously prescribed imaging volume and to rapidly view the imaging sections corresponding to the retrieved boundary geometry prior to initiating the image volume acquisition.

MR imaging system with interactive MR geometry prescription control

A method for prescribing geometry of an imaging volume of a structure of interest positioned in a magnetic resonance (MR) imaging system. The method includes (a) establishing a communication connection over a network between the MR imaging system and a remote facility to provide remote services to the MR imaging systems; (b) selecting a first boundary plane of the structure of interest, wherein the first boundary plane is prescribed by a first imaging section of the structure of interest; (c) determining a first geometry information corresponding to the first imaging section of the structure of interest; (d) storing the first geometry information in the MR imaging system; (e) selecting a second boundary plane of the structure of interest, wherein the second boundary plane is prescribed by a first imaging section of the structure of interest; (f) determining the second geometry information corresponding to the second imaging section of the structure of interest; (g) storing the second geometry information in the MR imaging system; and (h) applying the first and second geometry information of the first and second imaging sections, respectively, to prescribe a boundary geometry defining a subsequent imaging volume of the structure of interest. At least one of steps (b) through (h) is done remotely.

MR imaging system with interactive MR geometry prescription control over a network

A magnetic resonance (MR) imaging system equipped with real-time imaging capability and method of interactively prescribing image contrast are disclosed herein. The MR imaging system includes a sequence controller for constructing MR imaging pulse sequences and a waveform memory for storing waveform segments. The MR imaging system allows an operator to interactively prescribe image contrast mechanism prior to and/or during real-time imaging. The use of image contrast waveform segments, only as needed, minimizes unnecessary MR scan time.

System and method for interactive image contrast control in a magnetic resonance imaging system

An interactive magnetic resonance (MR) imaging system includes a MR imaging device, a network coupling the MR imaging device and a remote facility, an operator interface coupled to the MR imaging device and the network, a memory coupled to the MR imaging device, and a sequence controller coupled to the memory. The MR imaging device is configured to acquire and reconstruct MR data in real-time of a current imaging section and display a MR image in real-time of the current imaging section. The network provides remote services to the MR imaging device. The operator interface permits an operator to select from a plurality of image contrast mechanisms. The memory stores a plurality of image contrast waveform segments and at least one imaging waveform segment. Each of the plurality of image contrast waveform segments and the at least one imaging waveform segment is distinctly addressable such that each waveform segment can be independently accessed from the memory. The sequence controller dynamically links the selected image contrast waveform segments and one imaging waveform segment, causing the MR imaging device to acquire a new image with the selected waveform segment mechanisms.

MR imaging system with interactive image contrast control over a network

A medical imaging system includes a workstation for receiving operator inputs that prescribe a scan and a plurality of servers which control the acquisition of image data and the reconstruction of prescribed images. The workstation is programmed in Java&trade; to produce scan descriptions that are downloaded to the servers prior to run time using a serialization mechanism.

System architecture for medical imaging systems

An MRI system produces a series of real-time images by repeatedly acquiring image data and repeatedly reconstructing images from the acquired image data. The effective latency period between acquisition of the image data and display of the reconstructed images is minimized by acquiring image data in a reverse-centric view order in which low spatial frequencies are acquired last.

MR fluoroscopy with reverse-centric view acquisition

A method and apparatus for producing an imaging plane on an image of a structure of interest, such as an anatomical structure, positioned in an MRI system. An operator interactively pages through real-time, planar sections of the structure of interest. Using an input device, the operator selects three separate points in a planar section of the structure under study. Within approximately one second of selection of the third point, the method of the present invention determines the imaging plane containing the three selected points, determines the centroid of the imaging plane centered on a triangle defined by the three selected points, sends such imaging geometry and in-plane offsets of the imaging plane directly to the MRI system to generate a new imaging plane optimally positioned with respect to the selected points on the structure of interest and displaying such new imaging plane. The operator can also selectively maneuver the imaging plane on the image of the structure of interest. The operator uses a graphical user interface in conjunction with the input device and a display screen for producing the imaging plane on the structure of interest. Such graphical user interface is referred to as a three point tool.

Method for using three points to define a 2D MR imaging section

A magnetic resonance (MR) imaging system equipped with real-time imaging capability and methods of interactively prescribing image contrast are disclosed herein. The MR imaging system includes a sequence controller for constructing MR imaging pulse sequences and a waveform memory for storing waveform segments. The MR imaging system allows an operator to interactively prescribe image contrast mechanism prior to and/or during real-time imaging. The use of image contrast waveform segments, only as needed, minimizes unnecessary MR scan time.

MR imaging system with interactive image contrast control

A method and apparatus for producing an imaging plane on a primary, real-time image of a structure positioned in a MRI system having a display screen and an input device. An operator interactively acquires the primary, real-time image of a planar section of the structure of interest, such as an anatomical structure. Using an input device, the operator initiates the acquisition of a first localizer data set from the same orientation as the primary, real-time image of the structure under study. The present invention then acquires such data as a first localizer image and displays such image along side the primary, real-time image on a display screen of the MRI system. The present invention then acquires a second and third localizer data sets which are orthogonal to the primary, real-time image and to each other and generating and displaying said second and third localizer image. All three localizer images are displayed in three separate displays along side the primary, real-time image of the structure of interest with each localizer image having a graphic cross-reference, typically a line, which depicts the intersection of the primary, real-time image in each of the mutually orthogonal localizer images. The operator of the present invention may then see the relative position of the primary, real-time image plane of the structure of interest relative to the mutually orthogonal views of such structure of interest.

Growing community of inventors

Waukesha, WI, United States of America

Josef P Debbins