Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation

Sojuro Kato

Koji Akita

Kazuya Okamoto

Takahiro Sekiguchi

Toshiyuki Nakanishi

Makoto Hirama

Kazuyuki Soejima

According to one embodiment, a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes a static field magnet, a gradient coil, at least one radio frequency coil, a receiver and processing circuitry. The static field magnet, the gradient coil, the at least one radio frequency coil and the receiver are configured to acquire magnetic resonance signals from an object. The processing circuitry is configured to generate magnetic resonance image data based on the magnetic resonance signals. The receiver is configured to convert analog magnetic resonance signals received by the at least one radio frequency coil into digital magnetic resonance signals without a downconversion; separate the digital magnetic resonance signals into in-phase signals and quadrature-phase signals; and perform filter processing for removing noises of the in-phase signals and the quadrature-phase signals.

MRI apparatus and method using direct A/D of MR signals without frequency down conversion

According to one embodiment, an apparatus includes a control unit and a coil unit. The control unit generates a first clock signal, generates a data signal to indicate an operating condition, modulates the first clock signal by the data signal to obtain a modulated signal, generates a clock transmission signal including the modulated signal, and emits the clock transmission signal. The coil unit converts the clock transmission signal into an electric signal, detects the modulated signal from the clock transmission signal, generates a second clock signal synchronous with the first clock signal from the modulated signal, detects an MR signal generated in a subject, digitizes, synchronously with the second clock signal, the MR signal, detects the data signal from the detected modulated signal by using of the second clock signal, controls the operating condition of the coil unit to be the operating condition indicated by the data signal.

MRI RF coil control signals modulated onto the RF coil clock signal

According to one embodiment, an MRI apparatus includes a probe unit and a control/imaging unit. The probe unit includes a probe, a converter, a compressor and a transmitter. The control/imaging unit includes a receiver, an expander and a reconstructor. The probe detects an RF echo signal generated in a subject by a magnetic resonance phenomenon. The converter digitizes the detected signal. The compressor compresses the digitized signal in accordance with a predetermined compression parameter to obtain a compressed signal. The transmitter generates a transmission signal to wirelessly transmit the compressed echo signal and sends the transmission signal to a radio channel. The receiver receives the transmission signal and extracts the compressed signal from the received signal. The expander expands the extracted compressed signal in accordance with the parameter to obtain the RF echo signal. The reconstructor generates a video signal regarding the subject on the basis of the obtained signal.

Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and method with wireless transmission of compressed echo signals that are expanded and extracted at the receiver

In one embodiment, an MRI apparatus includes first and second clock generators, a pulse generator, transmission and reception coils, pulse and phase detectors, and a corrector. The pulse generator generates an excitation pulse signal based on a clock signal generated by the first clock generator. The reception coil outputs a radio frequency signals corresponding to an excitation pulse transmitted from the transmission coil or an MR echo. The converter digitizes, synchronously with a clock signal generated by the second clock generator, the radio frequency signal, to obtain radio frequency data. The pulse detector detects excitation pulse data corresponding to the excitation pulse from the radio frequency data. The phase detector detects a phase of a pulse indicated by the detected excitation pulse data. The corrector corrects the radio frequency data based on the detected phase, to compensate for a phase offset which occurs in the echo during the digitization.

Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus including elements for phase correction of wireless transmissions

According to one embodiment, a apparatus includes a coil, a clock generator, an echo transmitter, a carrier generator, a clock transmitter, a regenerator, an receiver, a reconstructor, a detector, and a controller. The echo transmitter generates and transmits an echo transmission signal synchronously with a clock signal generated by the clock generator to wirelessly transmit an echo signal output from the col. The carrier generator generates a carrier signal have a frequency within a variable range. The clock transmitter wirelessly transmits a clock transmission signal. The regenerator regenerates the clock signal based on the transmitted clock transmission signal. The receiver extracts the echo signal synchronously with the regenerated clock signal from the transmitted echo transmission signal. The detector detects a frequency of an interference wave. The controller controls the carrier generator to generate the carrier signal having a frequency which comparatively small interference with respect to the detected frequency.

Growing community of inventors

Nasushiobara, Japan

Sojuro Kato