System and method for MRI tagging spatial modulation of magnetization
A method of inducing tag lines in an MRI image is provided which allows adjustment of tag line width and spacing. The method includes determining a desired tag line width (505) and then selecting a parameter of a SINC modulating function, such as main lobe bandwidth, in accordance with the desired tag line width. The method also includes determining a desired tag line separation (51) and selecting a parameter of an ARF pulse train based upon the desired tag line separation. A gradiant field is applied to the specimen being imaged. The RF pulse train is modulated in accordance with the SINC modulating function (520) and the modulated RF pulse train is applied to the specimen being imaged prior to an image acquisition operation. In one embodiment of the invention, the gradiant is activated between pulses of the RF pulses.
The present invention relates generally to magnetic resonance imaging and more particularly relates to magnetic resonance imaging using spatial modulation of magnetization to establish a frame of reference in the form of tag lines on the resulting image.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONMagnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a well established tool for medical imaging. In magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the proton density of physical tissue characteristics is sensed to discriminate between healthy and diseased tissue. In the case of tissue that is in motion, such as the human heart, diseased tissue of the heart can be detected by analysis of wall motion of a heart chamber and wall thickness during the cardiac cycle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,554 describes a system and method for MRI imaging which uses a modulated RF signal to impose reference void lines on the resulting image. The '554 patent recognizes that such non-invasive MRI tagging is useful in establishing a frame of reference in the image data which is important in the analysis of moving bodies, such as the heart. The method described in the '554 patent includes modulating an. RF pulse that is applied to the body being imaged prior to acquiring image data. More particularly, the '554 patent discloses modulating an RF carrier pulse in the form (1+2 cos ω0t) with a function in the form of (sin(t)/t) just prior to conducting imaging acquisition. However, this form of modulated signal results in a non-uniform gradient which can result in aliasing.
There have been a number of improvements developed to spatially modulate the magnetization field, thereby providing a reference frame on the image in a non-invasive manner. Most notable among these improvements are the SPAMM and DANTE tagging techniques.
The SPAMM method, which is described for example in the article “A cine-SPAMM Sequence for NMR Imaging of Pulsatile Cerbrospinal Fluid Flow,” by Wayte et. al., Phys. Med. Biol., pp. 455-463, 1993, produces a sinusoidal modulation of saturated magnetization. An improvement to SPAMM, know as high-order SPAMM, improves the resulting modulation profile by employing binomial modulation of the RF pulse train. While these systems have proven effective in a number of applications, neither SPAMM nor high order SPAMM provide the user with the flexibility to alter the ratio of the tag width (width of the void line) to tag separation. Thus, the user is limited in the form of the resulting image tagging that can be achieved.
DANTE tagging employs a delta function to effect tagging. By effecting spatial modulation with a series of narrow RF pulses of uniform amplitude, the resulting saturation tags exhibit a SINC profile. The DANTE system is further described, for example, in the article entitled “Myocardial Tagging with B1 insensitive Adiabatic DANTE Inversion Sequences” by Tesekos, et al., 1994, pp 395-401, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIt is an object of the present invention to provide MRI tagging using a modulated RF pulse train which yields a rectangular profile of saturated magnetization.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of MRI tagging which provides flexibility in selecting the resulting tag width and tag separation.
In accordance with the present invention, a first method for inducing tag lines in an MRI image begins with the steps of determining a desired tag line width and determining a desired tag line separation. One or more parameters of a SINC modulating function are then selected in accordance with the desired tag line width. One or more parameters of an RF pulse train based are selected based upon the desired tag line separation. A gradient field is applied to the specimen being imaged. The RF pulse train is modulated in accordance with the SINC modulating function and the modulated RF pulse train is applied to the specimen being imaged prior to an image acquisition operation.
Preferably, the SINC modulating function is defined at least in part by the bandwidth of a main lobe, and by altering the bandwidth of the main lobe the width of the resulting tag lines is altered accordingly. It is also preferable for the RF pulses of the RF pulse train to be separated by a delay time between pulses which can be altered to determine the resulting tag line separation. Because these parameters of the modulating waveform and RF pulse train can be varied substantially independently of each other, a great deal of flexibility is provided.
Each pulse in the RF pulse train has a flip angle associated with a pulse amplitude and pulse duration. Preferably, the pulse amplitude and pulse duration can be varied, in an inverse relationship, to maintain the flip angle associated with the pulse while optimizing or reducing the peak power requirement. In one embodiment, the pulses in the RF pulse train have a common amplitude and the duty cycle of the pulses is modulated to deliver the appropriate flip angle per pulse in accordance with the SINC modulating function.
In the methods set forth above, the step of applying the gradient preferably occurs in a pulsed manner such that the gradient is active only between pulses of the RF pulse train.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGFurther objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying figures showing illustrative embodiments of the invention, in which
Throughout the figures, the same reference numerals and characters, unless otherwise stated, are used to denote like features, elements, components or portions of the illustrated embodiments. Moreover, while the subject invention will now be described in detail with reference to the figures, it is done so in connection with the illustrative embodiments. It is intended that changes and modifications can be made to the described embodiments without departing from the true scope and spirit of the subject invention as defined by the appended claims.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The method of the present invention may be used with standard MRI apparatus if such apparatus has control capabilities where parameters of the radio frequency (RF) pulse train and gradient may be easily varied. Referring to
The apparatus also includes a gradient system for producing spatial linear field gradients. These gradient fields are generally established by a set of three orthogonal direct current coils 11, 12 and 13, which generate the three principal gradients Gy, Gx, and Gz. These coils are driven by gradient generator 14, which in turn is controlled by a controller 16 which communicates with the host computer 20. Typical gradients used in MRI image processing are the well known slice select, readout, and phase encoding gradients.
Typical MRI systems also generally include a radio frequency (RF) coil 17 which generates a radio frequency field in the specimen being analyzed and senses a free induction decay or spin echo signal which is generated after termination of the radio frequency pulse. RF pulse unit 18 excites RF coil 17.
The signal processor 19 receives the small microvoltage level spin echo signals which are reconstructed by computer 20 to form an image. The image is digitized and stored in the memory section of computer 20 for later display on display unit 21.
Protons with their magnetic axis aligned in the transverse plane are termed “saturated,” as will be discussed below. If the imaging step is conducted with a magnetic axis of a proton already in the transverse plane, then due to the subsequent gradient crushing or dephasing, the magnetic axes will be aligned orthogonally to the slice plane (along the Z axis) which produces no signal, thereby resulting in a perceptible void in the image.
Referring to
A first order approximation of the presaturated magnetization profile produced by an RF pulse train in the presence of a constant gradient Gx is the Fourier transform of the RF pulse train waveform. Assume the width of individual RF pulses is infinitesimal, the SINC modulated RF pulse train can be written as:
where
is the SINC function with the first zero crossing at Δt1 and comb(t, Δt2) is the comb function of spacing Δt2. Thus the spatial modulation of magnetization can be approximated as:
which provides rectangular tags of width 1/(γGxΔt1) and separation 1/(γGxΔt2). As is evident from this equation, both the tag width and separation are influenced by the gradient Gx. Thus, in addition to influencing the tag line properties with the characteristics of the SINC function and comb function, the magnitude of the gradient can also be used to define these properties.
While expressed above as an ideal comb function, In practical implementations, the width of individual RF pulses is finite. This finite width may cause undesirable shading across the image in the presence of the constant gradient Gx. Assuming the duration of individual rectangular RF pulses is Δt3, the SINC modulated RF pulse train can be expressed as:
and the saturated magnetization profile then approximated by:
Thus the shading is characterized by a SINC modulation, sinc(πχγGxΔt3). This shading can be visible and detrimental when tagging a large field of view with very small tag separation. Reducing the duration of individual RF pulses, Δt3, can overcome this problem. However, doing so may impose high RF peak power requirements in some applications, such as human cardiac studies.
To address the problem of shading in a manner which does not put undo limitations on the peak power requirements of the RF generator, it has been discovered that the constant gradient Gx can be replaced by gradient segments between RF pulses without affecting the saturation profile as long as the gradient segment integral (i.e., the phase accumulation) between adjacent RF pulses is preserved.
Prior to activation of the first RF pulse, the gradient, Gx, is turned off (step 515) and the RF pulse is then applied (step 520). At the end of the RF pulse, the gradient Gx is again turned on (step 525). This process is completed for each pulse in the SINC modulated RF pulse train. If there are additional pulses in the pulse train to be applied (step 530), the process idles with the gradient active until the start time of the next RF pulse (step 540). If there are no more pulses in the pulse train, then the process advances to conventional MRI image acquisition (step 535). The gradient, Gx, is then deactivated (step 545) and the next RF pulse, whose amplitude and duration are determined by the SINC and comb function parameters, is applied (step 550). At the end of the pulse, the process returns, in a loop, to step 525.
The present methods are generally incorporated into conventional MRI apparatus by way of programming the host computer 20 and/or controller 16 in order to generate the desired waveforms from the RF pulse generator 18 and gradient generator 14. The software is generally written in any number of conventional programming languages and can be stored and transported on conventional computer readable media, such as magnetic storage disks (floppy diskettes, hard disks and the like), optical disks (CD-ROMS) and the like.
Experimental Results The present invention has been implemented using a Bruker AVANCE 400WB spectrometer (Bruker NMR, Inc., Billerica, Mass.) with an 89 mm vertical bore magnet of 9.4 T (Oxford Instruments Ltd., UK) using a 30-mm-i.d. quadrature RF probe and a shielded gradient system up to 100 G/cm. The SINC modulated RF pulse trains in conjunction with a constant gradient illustrated in
The DANTE tagging method, consisting of an RF pulse train of uniform amplitude and constant gradient, was also implemented for comparison. To achieve a tag width to separation ratio equivalent to that in
For the phantom study, a 20 mm tube of water doped with copper sulfate was used. Images were obtained by RF pulse train tagging followed by a 2D gradient echo (GE) encoding with the following sequence parameters: FOV=22 mm, acquisition matrix=256×256, slice thickness=2 mm, TR/TE=300/3 ms, flip angle=30°, number of averages=1. The RF pulse trains in
The in vivo mouse heart study was performed using a normal wild-type adult mouse (C57BL/6, 25 g). During the imaging experiment the mouse was anesthetized with isoflurane gas (1.5 vol. % at 2 L/min air flow) via a nose cone. The ECG was recorded from the front limbs using subcutaneous silver electrodes. During imaging heart rate was approximately 500 beats per minute. Imaging was performed with an ECG-gated fast 2D GE sequence using TR/TE=110/1.8 ms, FOV=26 mm, acquisition matrix=168×168, slice thickness=1.5 mm, flip angle=20°, number of averages=8. The total acquisition time was approximately 2.5 min. The tagging waveform in
Although the present invention has been described in connection with specific exemplary embodiments, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made to the disclosed embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
Claims
1. A method of inducing tag lines in an MRI image, comprising:
- determining a desired tag line width;
- determining a desired tag line separation;
- selecting a parameter of a SINC modulating function in accordance with the desired tag line width;
- selecting a parameter of an RF pulse train based upon the desired tag line separation;
- applying a gradient field to the specimen being imaged;
- modulating the RF pulse train in accordance with the SINC modulating function; and
- applying the modulated RF pulse train to the specimen being imaged prior to an image acquisition operation.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the SINC modulating function is defined at least in part by the bandwidth of a main lobe, and wherein altering the bandwidth of the main lobe alters the width of the resulting tag lines.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the width of the resulting tag lines is further determined by the magnitude of the applied gradient field.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the RF pulses of the RF pulse train are separated by a delay time, and wherein the delay time between pulses of the RF pulse train determines the tag line separation.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the separation of the resulting tag lines is further determined by the magnitude of the applied gradient field.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein each pulse in the RF pulse train has a flip angle associated with a pulse amplitude and pulse duration, and wherein the pulse amplitude and pulse duration are varied in an inverse relationship to maintain the flip angle associated with said pulse.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the pulses in the RF pulse train have a common amplitude and have a duty cycle modulated in accordance with the SINC function.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of applying the gradient occurs in a pulsed manner such that the gradient is active only between pulses of the RF pulse train.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the SINC modulating function is defined at least in part by the bandwidth of a main lobe, and wherein altering the bandwidth of the main lobe alters the width of the resulting tag lines.
10. The method of claim 8, wherein the RF pulses of the RF pulse train are separated by a delay time, and wherein the delay time between pulses of the RF pulse train determines the tag line separation.
11. The method of claim 8, wherein each pulse in the RF pulse train has a flip angle associated with a pulse amplitude and pulse duration, and wherein the pulse amplitude and pulse duration are varied in-an inverse relationship to maintain the flip angle associated with said pulse.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the pulses in the RF pulse train have a common amplitude and have a duty cycle modulated in accordance with the SINC function.
13. Computer readable media programmed to control a computer processor of an MRI apparatus to perform a method of inducing tag lines in an MRI image, comprising:
- determining a desired tag line width;
- determining a desired tag line separation;
- selecting a parameter of a SINC modulating function in accordance with the desired tag line width;
- selecting a parameter of an RF pulse train based upon the desired tag line separation;
- applying a gradient field to the specimen being imaged;
- modulating the RF pulse train in accordance with the SINC modulating function; and
- applying the modulated RF pulse train to the specimen being imaged prior to an image acquisition operation.
14. The computer readable media of claim 13, wherein the SINC modulating function is defined at least in part by the bandwidth of a main lobe, and wherein altering the bandwidth of the main lobe alters the width of the resulting tag lines.
15. The computer readable media of claim 13, wherein the RF pulses of the RF pulse train are separated by a delay time, and wherein the delay time between pulses of the RF pulse train determines the tag line separation.
16. The computer readable media of claim 13, wherein each pulse in the RF pulse train has a flip angle associated with a pulse amplitude and pulse duration, and wherein the pulse amplitude and pulse duration are varied in an inverse relationship to maintain the flip angle associated with said pulse.
17. The computer readable media of claim 16, wherein the pulses in the RF pulse train have a common amplitude and have a duty cycle modulated in accordance with the SINC function.
18. The computer readable media of claim 13, wherein the step of applying the gradient occurs in a pulsed manner such that the gradient is active only between pulses of the RF pulse train.
19. The computer readable media of claim 18, wherein the SINC modulating function is defined at least in part by the bandwidth of a main lobe, and wherein altering the bandwidth of the main lobe alters the width of the resulting tag lines.
20. The computer readable media of claim 19, wherein the RF pulses of the RF pulse train are separated by a delay time, and wherein the delay time between pulses of the RF pulse train determines the tag line separation.
21. The computer readable media of claim 18, wherein each pulse in the RF pulse train has a flip angle associated with a pulse amplitude and pulse duration, and wherein the pulse amplitude and pulse duration are varied in an inverse relationship to maintain the flip angle associated with said pulse.
22. The computer readable media of claim 21, wherein the pulses in the RF pulse train have a common amplitude and have a duty cycle modulated in accordance with the SINC function.
Type: Application
Filed: Oct 26, 2004
Publication Date: Aug 18, 2005
Inventors: Ed Wu (New York, NY), Haiying Tang (New York, NY)
Application Number: 10/973,371