King's College London

Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Picker International, Inc.

Marconi Medical Systems, Inc.

Siemens Healthineers Ag

Ericsson Ab

Imperial Innovations Limited

Ixico Technologies Limited

Ixico Limited

Joseph Vilmos Hajnal

David James Larkman

Mark Bydder

Shaihan Jalal Malik

Ian R Young

Kate McLeish

Derek Lionel Glendon Hill

John Brian Pendry

Haiying Liu

David John Gilderdale

Rao P Gullapalli

Michael Charles Keogh Wiltshire

Larry Kasuboski

Raphael Tomi-Tricot

Alasdair Stewart Hall

Francesco Padormo

David Jonathan Herlihy

Shuzhou Jiang

Robert Eckersley

Felipe Godinez

Shahid Jamil

Alberto Gomez

Mark Robert Austin

Laura Peralta Pereira

David Leitão

Tomoki Arichi

Rui Pedro Azeredo Gomes Teixeira

Kun Qian

Daniel John West

Shaihan Malik

A method of operating a magnetic resonance scanner includes determining a radio frequency (RF) pulse to be transmitted to jointly homogenize a flip angle and a semisolid saturation that would result from magnetization of a sample to be scanned by the MR scanner using the determined RF pulse. The method also includes controlling an RF transmit coil of the MR scanner to transmit the determined pulse. Homogenizing both semisolid saturation and excitation properties of the RF pulse allows for improved magnetic transfer ratio imaging.

Method of operating a magnetic resonance scanner

Aspects and embodiments provide an MRI scanner-compatible virtual reality system comprising: user equipment locatable within an MRI scanner bore, the user equipment being configured to provide a subject with an immersive virtual environment; the system further comprising: at least one sensor configured to track eye movement of the subject; wherein interaction of the subject with the immersive virtual environment is controlled by the tracked eye movement. Aspects and embodiments may be implemented in a manner which recognises that VR techniques, which typically rely upon dynamic movement of a VR subject, can be used to aid with maintenance of minimal motion of a subject to be placed within an MRI scanner bore. Implementations may be such that calmness of a subject can be increased and awareness of their physical surroundings diminished, thus allowing for successful MRI image acquisition whilst seeking to minimise distress, boredom and/or frustration experienced by the subject under study.

MRI scanner-compatible virtual reality system

Embodiments described provide an ultrasound method, and an ultrasound apparatus and computer program product operable to perform that method. In some embodiments, the method allows for provision of a multi-transducer ultrasound imaging system by providing a robust method to accurately localize the transducers in the system in order to beamform a final image. The method and apparatus described allow for improvements in imaging quality in terms of resolution, depth penetration, contrast and signal to noise ratio (SNR).

Ultrasound method and apparatus

The present invention relate to a system and associate method of MRI and MR spectroscopy which provide stable measurements of the relaxation times, T1 and T2, by using tailored multi-band RF pulses that direct control of the saturation conditions in the background pool of macro-molecular protons, and hence provide a flexible means to induce constant Magnetisation Transfer (MT) effects. In doing this, equal saturation of the background pool is obtained for all measurements independent of the parameters that may be changed, for example, the rotation rate used to obtain a desired flip angle, that is, the degree of change in the magnetisation of the free pool of protons.

Controlled excitation and saturation of magnetisation transfer systems

Parallel transmit Magnetic Resonance MR scanner used to image a conductive object such as an interventional device like a guidewire within a subject. This is achieved by determining which Radio Frequency RF transmission modes produced by the parallel RF transmission elements couple with the conductive object and then transmitting at significantly reduced power so as to prevent excessive heating of the conductive object to an extent that would damage the surrounding tissue of the subject, for example, the coupling RF transmission modes may be generated at less than 30%, preferably around 10% of the normal power levels that would conventionally be used for MR imaging. However, even at these low power levels sufficient electric currents are induced in the conductive device to cause detectable MR signals; the location of the conductive object within the subject can thus be visualised. By fast alternate, or simultaneous, iterative application of low-power coupling mode and normal-power non-coupling modes, both the subject and the conductive object can be imaged. During the calibration step of determining which RF transmission modes couples with the conductive object, instead of physically measuring the current induced in the conductive object using sensors, imaging the conductive object using additional very short series of flip angle RF pulses (vLFA) gives a good approximation of the coupling matrix.

Method and system for magnetic resonance imaging

A system is described for detecting fraud from medical imaging data comprising image data and associated metadata. The system comprises input means arranged to receive image data from at least one source, and processing means arranged to analyze the imaging data to determine whether it meets a fraud criterion, and if it does to generate a fraud indicator output.

Image data fraud detection systems

A method of generating an image data set, describing an object, as the object moves in a scanning space, comprises: a) performing a plurality of scans of the scanning space each scan being arranged to generate a set of samples, each sample including a sample value of at least one parameter associated with a respective point in the scanning space, the plurality of scans generating sample sets relating to a plurality of different parameters; b) determining a mapping for each of the samples from the scanning space into an object space which is fixed relative to the object; and c) determining object space values for each of the parameters at each of a plurality of points in the object space.

Imaging of moving objects

A system for admitting medical imaging data comprising image data and associated metadata comprises input means arranged to received image data from at least one source, a memory having stored therein consistency data defining at least one consistency criterion, and processing means arranged to analyze the imaging data to determined whether it meets the consistency criterion, and if it does not to amend the imaging data so that it does.

Image data management systems

A material having magnetic permeability at r.f. frequency, for example a microstructured magnetic material has a magnetic permeability of negative value but unity magnitude over a particular r.f. frequency range. The singularity in the flux pattern has the result that magnetic resonant disturbances in a plane C,E normal to the line C,D are focussed into a plane D,F also normal to the line C,D and vice versa. This is particularly applicable to magnetic resonance apparatus, since the material can be used to transfer the r.f. magnetic flux distribution in a target region in a patient, for example at C,E to D,F where the flux may be directly measured by receive coils. Equally, transmit coils may generate flux to be focussed into the target region by the material. Magnetic resonance apparatus may be constructed which does not require gradient coils, and r.f. hypothermia may be carried out in a focussed way, minimising damage to surrounding tissue.

Material having magnetic permeability at R.F. frequency

In magnetic resonance imaging apparatus k-space data received from r.f. excitation pulses applied at successive phase-encode gradients and read-out while other gradients are applied is collected for individual coils of an array of r.f. receive coils. A processoruses the lines of data received by each r.f. receive coil at each phase-encode gradient together with reference spatial sensitivity profiles of each coil in a phase-encode direction represented in terms of spatial harmonics of a fundamental frequency one cycle of which corresponds with a desired field of view, to generate a set of phase-encode lines. These lines are converted to image space in Fourier Transform processorto produce an image for display on monitor

Magnetic resonance imaging using generalized smash

In apparatus for magnetic resonance imaging equipped for parallel imaging, in the sense that an array of receive coils can be used to regenerate data at phase-encode gradients interposed between those at which measurements were taken, the full set of data is collected, which is then split into two sets with a greater separation of phase-encode gradients (FIGS.and). These sets are then each regenerated (FIGS.and), enabling spurious data to be excised from the original data set by comparison of the two representations.

Synthesized averaging using SMASH

Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus uses an array of at least two receive coils to perform parallel processing to enable phase-encode gradients to be omitted during data collection, and restored during processing using parallel processing to further reduce patient time in the apparatus, pre-acquired reference data is used (modules ) to unfold the aliased target data in modules In accordance with the invention, the unfolding is performed against a series of representations of the reference data, varied for translational rotational and coil loading errors, and the unfolded image is chosen as that having the minimum entropy.

Magnetic resonance imaging

In magnetic resonance imaging apparatus employing magnetic gradient fields in a phase-encode and in a read-out direction for spatially encoding excited MR active nuclei in a region of interest of a patient, in which a reduced number of readings in the read-out direction is taken, thereby creating an aliased reduced field of view image, at least two r.f. receive coils are used together with sensitivity information concerning those coils in order to unfold the aliased image to produce a full image while taking advantage of the reduced time of collection of data. In accordance with the invention, sensitivity information is collected at a lower resolution than that at which the image information is collected.

In a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus in which excitation pulses are applied to a restricted region of a magnetic resonance imaging magnet bore, in which the field is uniform, and the data samples collected are Fourier transformed to form a volumetric image of the restricted region, a motor continuously moves a patient couch so that a region of interest passes through the region of good field, and the data samples collected are corrected to compensate for the motion so that a volumetric image is formed of greater length than that of the restricted region.

Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus

In magnetic resonance imaging apparatus employing magnetic gradient fields in a phase-encode direction for spatially encoding excited MR active nuclei in a region of interest of a patient, in which a reduced number of readings in the phase-encode direction is taken, thereby creating an aliased reduced field of view image, a pair of r.f. receive coils is used together with sensitivity information concerning those coils in order to unfold the aliased image to produce a full image while taking advantage of the reduced time of collection of data. In accordance with the invention, the phase sensitivity pattern of each coil over the region of interest is different from that of the other coil.

Growing community of inventors

London, United Kingdom

Joseph Vilmos Hajnal