Patents Examined by Rishi R Patel
  • Patent number: 11940508
    Abstract: A magnetic particle imaging (MPI) and fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT)-fused multimodal imaging system and method for a small animal are provided. The multimodal imaging system includes an image processing module, a display module, a control module, an object table, a gradient coil, a driving coil, a reception coil, a fluorescence camera, and a light source module, where the gradient coil includes a first rounded rectangular coil and a second rounded rectangular coil; the driving coil includes a third rounded rectangular coil, a fourth rounded rectangular coil, and a fifth rounded rectangular coil; and the reception coil is a circular coil.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2023
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2024
    Assignee: Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
    Inventors: Jie Tian, Lishuang Guo, Jiangang Liu, Yu An
  • Patent number: 11933870
    Abstract: For detecting motion in MR imaging, a regression model, such as a convolutional neural network, is machine trained. To generalize to MR imagers, MR contrasts, or other differences in MR image generation, the regression model is trained adversarially. The discriminator for adversarial training discriminates between classes of the variation source (e.g., type of MR imager or type of contrast) based on values of features learned in the regression model for detecting motion. By adversarial training, the regression model learns features that are less susceptible or invariant to variation in image source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: Siemens Healthineers AG
    Inventors: Silvia Bettina Arroyo Camejo, Benjamin L. Odry, Xiao Chen, Mariappan S. Nadar
  • Patent number: 11921180
    Abstract: A method for controlling a magnetic resonance imaging system, including: selecting a plurality of spatially non-selective initial RF-pulses each having a predefined pulse shape and a predefined frequency; determining a combined RF-pulse from the initial RF-pulses by choosing a time-offset comprising a relative application time-shift between the initial RF-pulses, wherein this time-offset is chosen such that the initial RF-pulses overlap; and including the combined RF pulse in a pulse sequence applied in a magnetic resonance imaging system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: Siemens Healthcare GmbH
    Inventors: Thorsten Feiweier, Bryan Clifford, Tom Hilbert
  • Patent number: 11899086
    Abstract: A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes sequence controlling circuitry and processing circuitry. The sequence controlling circuitry executes (i) a first pulse sequence in which a spatially selective Inversion recovery (IR) pulse and a spatially non-selective IR pulse are applied, and (ii) a second pulse sequence in which the spatially non-selective IR pulse is applied without applying the spatially selective IR pulse, while varying the first TI period, with respect to a plurality of first TI periods. The sequence controlling circuitry executes (iii) the third pulse sequence in which the spatially selective IR pulse and the spatially non-selective IR pulse are applied, and (iv) the fourth pulse sequence in which the spatially non-selective IR pulse is applied without applying the spatially selective IR pulse. The processing circuitry generates a magnetic resonance image of an imaged region based on data obtained from the third pulse sequence and the fourth pulse sequence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: CANON MEDICAL SYSTEMS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Mitsue Miyazaki, Yoshimori Kassai
  • Patent number: 11899158
    Abstract: In some embodiments, a method includes generating at least a first pulse sub-sequence comprising a number of refocusing pulses at a first flip angle and generating at least a second pulse sub-sequence comprising a number of refocusing pulses at a second, lower flip angle. The method further includes detecting, by a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) sensor of a logging tool positioned in a wellbore formed in a subsurface formation, NMR spin-echo signals generated in response to at least the first pulse sub-sequence to acquire a first dataset of transversal NMR relaxation data, detecting, by the NMR sensor, NMR spin-echo signals generated in response to at least the second pulse sub-sequence to acquire a second dataset of transversal NMR relaxation data, and determining a property of the subsurface formation based on the first and second datasets of transversal NMR relaxation data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.
    Inventor: Arcady Reiderman
  • Patent number: 11898976
    Abstract: A method for determining the pore types of a core sample can include: determining a porosity of a core sample, wherein the core sample has a permeability of 10 mD or less; saturating the core sample with a NMR saturation fluid to achieve a saturated core sample; taking a NMR measurement of fluids in the saturated core sample; and deriving a volume for a pore type based on the porosity based on a correlation between the NMR measurement and a NMR signal to fluid volume calibration, wherein the pore type is selected from the group consisting of a nanopore, a micropore, a macropore, and any combination thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company
    Inventors: Pavel Kortunov, Hubert E. King, Harry W. Deckman
  • Patent number: 11885858
    Abstract: A method for performing magnetic resonance imaging is provided. The method includes providing a magnetic resonance imaging system comprising: a radio frequency receive system comprising a radio frequency receive coil, and a housing, wherein the housing comprises a permanent magnet for providing an inhomogeneous permanent gradient field, a radio frequency transmit system, and a single-sided gradient coil set. The method also includes placing the receive coil proximate a target subject; applying a sequence of chirped pulses via the transmit system; applying a multi-slice excitation along the inhomogeneous permanent gradient field; applying a plurality of gradient pulses via the gradient coil set orthogonal to the inhomogeneous permanent gradient field; acquiring a signal of the target subject via the receive system, wherein the signal comprises at least two chirped pulses; and forming a magnetic resonance image of the target subject.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: Promaxo, Inc.
    Inventor: Muller Francis De Matos Gomes
  • Patent number: 11885864
    Abstract: Generation of artifacts caused by the FID signal is suppressed even when the parallel imaging is applied to the imaging using a spin echo type pulse sequence. In performing a pulse sequence of a spin echo type using an excitation RF pulse for exciting nuclear spin and an inversion RF pulse for inverting excited nuclear spin as a high-frequency magnetic field pulse, a high-frequency transmitter of a MRI apparatus changes the phase of the inversion RF pulse according to the phase encoding and the phase encoding number imparted for each echo signal. Specifically, the phase of the inversion RF pulse is controlled to be a quadratic function of the phase encode of the echo signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Healthcare Corporation
    Inventors: Kosuke Ito, Atsushi Kuratani
  • Patent number: 11867784
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method of MR imaging of an object (10) positioned in an examination volume of a MR device (1). It is an object of the invention to enable efficient and high-quality non-Cartesian MR imaging, even in situations of strong B0 inhomogeneity. In accordance with the invention, the method comprises: —subjecting the object to an imaging sequence comprising at least one RF excitation pulse and modulated magnetic field gradients, —acquiring MR signals along at least one non-Cartesian k-space trajectory, —reconstructing an MR image from the acquired MR signals, and —detecting one or more mal-sampling artefacts caused by B0 inhomogeneity induced insufficient k-space sampling in the MR image using a deep learning network. Moreover, the invention relates to a MR device (1) and to a computer program.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2024
    Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
    Inventors: Peter Boernert, Karsten Sommer, Christophe Michael Jean Schulke, Johan Samuel Van Den Brink
  • Patent number: 11867787
    Abstract: An apparatus for controlling at least one gradient coil of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system. The apparatus may include at least one computer hardware processor; and at least one computer-readable storage medium storing processor executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one computer hardware processor, cause the at least one computer hardware processor to perform a method. The method may include receiving information specifying at least one target pulse sequence; determining a corrected pulse sequence to control the at least one gradient coil based on the at least one target pulse sequence and a hysteresis model of induced magnetization in the MRI system caused by operation of the at least one gradient coil; and controlling, using the corrected gradient pulse sequence, the at least one gradient coil to generate one or more gradient pulses for imaging a patient.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2024
    Assignee: Hyperfine Operations, Inc.
    Inventors: Rafael O'Halloran, Cedric Hugon, Laura Sacolick, Hadrien A. Dyvorne
  • Patent number: 11821861
    Abstract: A method of estimating a wettability characteristic of a rock and fluid system includes acquiring a sample of the rock material, performing a first nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurement of the sample when the sample is in a full water saturation condition, and measuring a first T2 distribution, performing a second NMR measurement of the sample when the sample is in a second partial saturation condition, and measuring a second T2 distribution. The method also includes separating a hydrocarbon component of the second T2 distribution from a water component of the second T2 distribution, applying a fluid substitution model to the water component of the second T2 distribution to generate a computed T2 distribution, and calculating a wettability index (WI) based on a difference between the first T2 distribution and the computed T2 distribution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2023
    Assignees: BAKER HUGHES OILFIELD OPERATIONS LLC, SAUDI ARABIAN OIL COMPANY
    Inventors: Hasan Kesserwan, Shouxiang Ma, Gabor Hursan
  • Patent number: 11815573
    Abstract: An ultra-high field radio-frequency (RF) transmit/receive apparatus radio-frequency (RF) transmit/receive apparatus for magnetic resonance (MR) systems, may include: a dipole-array based volume coil (2) with a plurality of straight dipole antennas (3); at least three circular conducting rings (4, 5, 6) radial surrounding the dipole-array based volume coil (2), the at least three circular conducting rings (4, 5, 6) being substantially parallel with each other, having a plurality of ports (9, 10) for receiving a set of quadrature drive signals, the RF coil apparatus further comprising at least two independent transmit/receive (T/R) RF channels (11, 12, 13, 14) for driving the dipole-array based volume coil (2) and the at least three circular conducting rings (4, 5, 6).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2023
    Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
    Inventors: Zhiyong Zhai, Paul Royston Harvey
  • Patent number: 11815481
    Abstract: A method for determining the porosity of a core sample can include: saturating a core sample with a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) saturation fluid, wherein the core sample has a permeability of 100 milliDarcy (mD) or less, to achieve a saturated core sample; taking a NMR measurement of fluids in the saturated core sample; determining a porosity of the core sample based on a correlation between the NMR measurement and a NMR signal to fluid volume calibration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2023
    Assignee: ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company
    Inventors: Hubert E. King, Pavel Kortunov, Harry W. Deckman, Shreerang S. Chhatre, Hemantkumar R. Sahoo, Antonio S. Buono
  • Patent number: 11808829
    Abstract: The exemplary system and method facilitate excitation of RF magnetic fields in ultra-high field (UHF) magnetic resonance (MRI) systems (e.g., MRI/NMR system) using a slotted waveguide array (SWGA) as an exciter coil. The exemplary exciter coil, in some embodiments, is configurable to provide RF magnetic field B1+ with high field-uniformity, with high efficiency, with excellent circular polarization, with negligible axial z-component, with arbitrary large field of view, and with exceptional possibilities for field-optimizations via RF shimming.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: Colorado State University Research Foundation
    Inventors: Branislav Notaros, Milan Ilic
  • Patent number: 11789101
    Abstract: Provided are MRI images with excellent image quality and in which the occurrence of artifacts is suppressed by effectively removing a secondary error magnetic field, generated by compensation current (additional current), of eddy current that is caused by applying a gradient magnetic field. The present invention measures and analyzes, in advance, a secondary error magnetic field generated due to the applying of compensation current and saves the results as compensation parameters (secondary compensation parameters), uses the secondary compensation parameters to calculate a correction magnetic field output to be applied to each of a gradient magnetic field coil and a correction coil, and supplies this correction magnetic field output to the gradient magnetic field coil and the correction coil to compensate for (cancel out) the secondary error magnetic field.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: FUJIFILM HEALTHCARE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naoya Sakaguchi, Syouichi Miyawaki, Hirokazu Honma
  • Patent number: 11774530
    Abstract: To achieve a uniform magnetic field in an MRI system, fitting can be performed using a partially differentiated residue phase map, differentiated shim functions, radial weights, a regularization factor, a discontinuity mask, and/or a signal intensity mask to determine coefficients for shim functions. The fitting can be performed iteratively, where the regularization factor is stronger and the radial weights focus on areas of higher confidence during earlier iterations. During later iterations, the regularization factor gradually gets weaker and the radial weights gradually focus on areas of lower confidence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2023
    Assignee: CANON MEDICAL SYSTEMS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Wayne Richard Dannels
  • Patent number: 11774527
    Abstract: The receiving coil device includes one or a plurality of receiving coils configured to cover a head of a subject, a base portion on which the head of the subject is to be placed, a holder portion supported by the base portion, one of the receiving coils being fixed to the holder portion, a mechanism portion configured to bring the receiving coil fixed to the holder portion into close contact with a part of the head, and further, a detection unit configured to detect a physical quantity related to a displacement of the holder portion on the holder portion or the base portion. The physical quantity detected by the detection unit is sent to an MRI apparatus including the receiving coil device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2023
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Healthcare Corporation
    Inventors: Kohjiro Iwasawa, Yosuke Otake, Hideta Habara, Kazuyuki Kato, Toru Shirai, Yukio Kaneko, Hikaru Hanada
  • Patent number: 11766189
    Abstract: A nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) system-based substance measurement method, including: acquiring several echo signals of an NMR pulse sequence varying in echo spacing from a substance to be measured followed by processing to obtain several signals varying in transverse relaxation and diffusion attenuation; and fitting, in combination with the prior knowledge, the signals to obtain the diffusion coefficient, transverse relaxation time or/and content weight of individual components of the substance to be measured. This application further provides a substance measurement system including a console, a magnet module, and an NMR system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2023
    Assignee: WUXI MARVEL STONE HEALTHCARE CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Ziyue Wu, Hai Luo, Weiqian Wang, Xiao Chen, Yang Ye
  • Patent number: 11762121
    Abstract: A method includes generating a temperature-corrected nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurement-derived value corresponding to a target temperature using a correlation model that is based on a difference between the target temperature and a sample temperature. The method also includes determining a formation property based on the temperature-corrected NMR measurement-derived value corresponding to the target temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2023
    Assignee: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Wei Shao, Songhua Chen
  • Patent number: 11733338
    Abstract: An MRI phantom having an MRI compatible temperature measurement device having an MRI compatible body containing an MRI compatible fluid, wherein the device senses accurate temperature measurement within an MR Scanner environment using image processing of the contrast in signal between the areas of the image around the device and the fluid contained within the body of the device. The MRI Phantom may further include an internal expansion bladder device accomodating internal changes in pressure within the phantom, wherein the internal expansion bladder device includes frames supporting a pair of spaced membranes defining a chamber filled with a compressible gas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2023
    Assignees: PSYCHOLOGY SOFTWARE TOOLS, INC, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH—OF THE COMMONWEALTH SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION
    Inventors: Anthony P. Zuccolotto, John Dzikiy, Leroy K. Basler, Benjamin A. Rodack, Walter Schneider, Sudhir K. Pathak, Michael A. Boss