General Electric Company

Ge Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC

Steven J Huff

Joseph K Maier

Xiaohong Zhou

Gopal Biligeri Avinash

Kamal Mannar

Hammond G Reynolds

Aniruddha Banke Tiwari

Anders Per Hornblad

Peter Malave

Jonathan Clarence West

Partha Natampalli

Methods and systems are provided for monitoring optical transceiver devices. In one embodiment, a method comprises predicting degradation of an optical transceiver device based on values of an operating parameter of the optical transceiver device obtained over time, and generating a notification of the degradation of the optical transceiver device. In this way, an optical transceiver device that is susceptible to degradation may be pre-emptively identified and replaced, thereby preventing failures of a communication system including the optical transceiver device.

Systems and methods for predicting defects in optical transceiver devices

A system for acquiring and analyzing fault conditions for at least one coil of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system. Each of the at least one coils is electrically connected through a transmit/receive (T/R) bias circuit to an interface. The system has a central processing unit with a processor configured to execute programmable instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to conduct circuit tests at predetermined intervals for the at least one coil, acquire data for the at least one coil to construct a data log with a plurality of input events, and algorithmically filter and analyze the plurality of input events to create an output configured to predict a failure event of the at least one coil. A method for analyzing and acquiring fault conditions is also provided.

Method and system for acquiring and analyzing coil data

A method and apparatus for correcting ghosting artifacts that are related to Maxwell fields and/or other perturbation magnetic fields is disclosed. The method and apparatus includes acquiring MR image n-space data and an MR reference scan, each having perturbation field effects therein. After determining phase correction values from the MR reference scan and reconstructing an MR image using the phase correction values, a projection phase error is calculated from the reconstructed MR image and then subtracted from the reference scan, the result of which is used to determine a new set of phase correction values. The new set of phase correction values is applied to the acquired MR image data to reconstruct a new image. The reconstructed new image can then be reused to calculate a new projection phase error, which again is subtracted from the reference scan data and the process is repeated until an image of desired ghost artifact reduction is achieved.

Method and apparatus to reduce the effects of maxwell terms and other perturbation magnetic fields in MR images

A method and apparatus for correcting ghost artifacts that are related to orthogonal perturbation magnetic fields is disclosed. The technique includes acquiring MR data and an MR reference scan, each in the presence of orthogonal perturbation magnetic fields. However, the region of interest for the MR reference scan is limited to a relatively narrow band within the imaging subject. Preferably, the narrow band is selected in the vicinity of the magnet iso-center and parallel to the readout direction. Alternatively, the narrow band can also be selected in the limited region where the orthogonal perturbation fields are either minimal or constant along the phase encoding direction, and parallel to the readout direction. The selection of the relatively narrow band is accomplished by either spatially saturating surrounding regions, or using a two-dimensional spatially selective RF pulse. Phase correction values can then be calculated from a more accurately defined slope and intercept of the phase of the MR reference scan and used to correct the MR data. A reconstructed MR image using this technique has reduced ghost artifacts otherwise caused by the adverse effects of the orthogonal perturbation fields in the phase correction process.

Method and apparatus to reduce perturbation field effects in MR images by restricting the region of interest

A technique is provided for generating images on an MRI system in which errors due to gradient pulses are compensated. The errors are identified in advance, such as in a calibration sequence performed on the MRI system. Receiver phase adjustment and logical gradient error values are derived from the identified error values. The calibration sequence may be a modified version of the MRI imaging sequence used to produce the images. The correction values may be based upon corrections at the center of k-space. The technique is particularly useful in compensating for effects of eddy currents in pulse sequences employing high slew rate gradient pulses, such as diffusion weighted echo planar imaging sequences.

Method and apparatus for producing diffusion weighted MR images

A technique is disclosed for determining errors in MRI sequences resulting from eddy currents generated by pulsed gradient fields. During a calibration sequence, with no phase-encoding, gradient pulses and readout sequences are applied along physical axes of a scanner and data sets are acquired for each combination. A reference data set is acquired with no gradient pulses applied. The resulting data sets are processed by one dimensional Fourier transformation, and the transformed data is analyzed to determine spatially invariant and linear gradient errors. The phase errors may be averaged for each physical axis. The technique is particularly useful in determining errors in diffusion weighted echo planar imaging sequences.

Method and apparatus for identifying errors in magnetic resonance imaging examinations

The ghost artifacts appearing in images produced by an MRI system are measured. An image of a reference phantom is acquired and the ghost artifacts are measured by cross correlating a ghost correlation matrix with the image. The ghost correlation matrix is produced from the image and the cross correlation is computed as the ghost correlation matrix is moved across the image along either the phase encoding or frequency encoding axes.

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Hartland, WI, United States of America

Steven J Huff