Magnetic resonance receive coil array with sensor nodes - Patents.com
By integrating additional sensor nodes within the MR receiver coil array, the complexity of ECG measurements during MR scans is reduced, enabling high-quality diagnostic ECG signals without extensive preparation or dedicated infrastructure.
Patent Information
- Application Number
- JP2024556684
- Authority / Receiving Office
- JP · JP
- Patent Type
- Applications
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Priority Date
- 2022-03-28
- Filing Date
- 2023-03-22
- Publication Date
- 2025-04-14
AI Technical Summary
Current ECG measurements during MR scans are complex, requiring separate steps and dedicated equipment, which complicates signal acquisition and limits diagnostic quality, especially at higher magnetic field strengths.
The integration of additional sensor nodes within the MR receiver coil array, which includes high-frequency receiver antennas, digital amplifier signal acquisition circuits, and sensor nodes capable of collecting and digitizing measurement data, allowing for improved signal acquisition and alignment with MR signals.
This solution enables high-quality ECG measurements without the need for extensive patient preparation or dedicated infrastructure, improving diagnostic capabilities and reducing complexity and costs associated with MR imaging.
Smart Images
Figure 2025510240000001_ABST
Abstract
Description
[Technical field]
[0001] The present invention relates to the field of magnetic resonance receive coil arrays, and in particular to magnetic receive coil arrays having additional sensor nodes. [Background technology]
[0002] Electrocardiogram (ECG) measurements are performed during magnetic resonance (MR) scans to monitor electrophysiology and provide temporal information about the cardiac cycle that is used to trigger the MR scan. Triggering is essential for imaging of the heart and facilitates improved image quality of all other organs. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]
[0003] Currently, ECG measurements during MR scans are performed with dedicated ECG devices that are fully or partially inside the MR scan bore. Signal acquisition is performed with a set of wet electrodes that are attached to the patient during scan preparation. This requires a separate step that must be performed by trained personnel to ensure correct positioning and attachment of the ECG electrodes to the patient. The use of ECG within the MR bore is very complex due to the need for full MR compatibility of the ECG measurements and due to reciprocal influences on the quality of the collected signal. For example, the ECG signal is distorted during switching of the magnetic field gradients due to EMI and due to vibrations of the electronics. ECG cables can also adversely affect MR scans. The ECG signal appears on the body as a surface potential resulting from the electrical activity of the heart. It may be desirable to obtain diagnostic quality ECG signals while the patient is being monitored in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system.
[0004] Today's ECG with wet electrodes is independent of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system and only allows gating of the MR sequence to the average heart rate obtained from the ECG measurement. Such ECG gating provides information about which part of the cardiac cycle is in order to trigger the acquisition of MR images at the desired time point in the cardiac cycle. Furthermore, it is not possible today to obtain adequate ECG quality in standard 1.5T or higher MRI systems. In addition, ECG triggering can also be difficult in standard 3T or higher magnetic field MRI systems. Therefore, currently there are no diagnostic quality ECG systems that can be used with MRI systems. Today, ECG measurements in the MR bore are performed with a separate ECG system that is placed on the patient in a separate step. The ECG uses only a few electrodes (to limit the number of cables). Further wet ECG electrodes connected by long cables to the sensor electronics are used. Preparing the patient for ECG measurements is time-consuming and not a sufficiently robust process. Similar reasoning is applicable to all types of ExG measurements and to all types of measurements that are relevant during MR signal acquisition. Most of these are not done today due to the high complexity and costs associated with their introduction into the coil.
[0005] EP 3841972 A1 discloses a magnetic resonance (MR) imaging system having an integrated vital signs detector for sensing a patient's vital signs within the MR imaging system.
[0006] The present invention improves magnetic resonance image quality or system maintenance by providing additional information through additional sensor nodes. [Means for solving the problem]
[0007] The invention is defined by the independent claims. Preferred embodiments of the invention are set forth in the dependent claims.
[0008] A first aspect of the present invention provides a magnetic resonance (MR) receive coil array for an MR imaging system, the MR receive coil array comprising: at least one radio frequency (RF) receiving antenna; at least one digital amplifier signal acquisition circuit having a digital amplifier, the digital amplifier signal acquisition circuit being configured to receive an MR signal from the RF receiving antenna and to output an amplified digital MR signal; at least one sensor node having a sensor for collecting measurement data, the sensor node further comprising a sensor signal acquisition circuit configured to digitize the collected measurement data, the sensor signal acquisition circuit being connected to a digital amplifier signal acquisition circuit via a first digital interface, the sensor signal acquisition circuit being configured to link the digitized measurement data from the sensor signal acquisition circuit to a digital amplifier via the first digital interface, the digital amplifier being configured to combine the digitized measurement data from the sensor signal acquisition circuit with an amplified digital MR signal; and the MR receive coil array comprises a merger circuit configured to receive the combined amplified digital MR signal and the digitized measurement data from the digital amplifier by means of a second digital interface and output the combined data to a back-end or digital data processor of the MR imaging system. In case of multiple digital amplifiers, different types of sensors, and multiple identical sensor nodes, the merger can recombine data for each data type (e.g., RF data, ECG data, or other sensor data) into a dedicated data stream and provide the data stream to the back-end. Alternatively, certain data processing, e.g., ECG recombination, can occur at or near the merger in the coil assembly.
[0009] The present invention provides additional data with additional measurements by means of sensor nodes, which can be realized during an MR examination. Additional measurements can be understood as any measurements that are different from the MR signal acquisition but can improve the MR image quality or system maintenance or obtain additional patient information by providing additional data to the user.
[0010] With respect to currently used solutions, the present invention brings major system, capability and procedure improvements. It is particularly advantageous that only short cables or even no cables are required for the measurements. In this way, major design and safety concerns are largely eliminated. Furthermore, no dedicated infrastructure at PCB and coil assembly level is required to perform measurements with the sensor node. Power and cables, data transfer cables and physical carriers (PCB) are already provided by the digital amplifier signal acquisition circuit as part of the digital amplifier for RF data acquisition. No dedicated patient preparation or scan preparation steps are required, since the measurements are built into the MR coil and can be enabled by the operator via the software that controls the signal acquisition with the coil. There is no practical limit to the number of sensors that can be used. As a result, very high quality measurements can be achieved in a very safe, robust and cost-effective manner.
[0011] As an additional advantage, the collected sensor data is time-aligned with the main RF data in each digital amplifier. The main RF data can be any data related to RF (radio frequency) acquisition, conversion, and reconstruction. This can lead to any components used to build the B0 and B1 fields. As a non-limiting example, the main RF data can be data of MR signals received by the RF receiving antenna in the digital amplifier. This allows for time correlation of the sensor measurements with the RF imaging sequence, thus allowing time adaptation for optimal alignment of events.
[0012] In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the sensor has a common ground with the digital amplifier.
[0013] In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the sensor of the sensor node is adapted to detect physiological measurements of the examined patient.
[0014] In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the sensor is an electrophysiological sensor or a movement sensor.
[0015] In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the sensor is a capacitive electrophysiological sensor having at least one capacitive electrode.
[0016] In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the sensor is configured to detect measurements of the environment in which the MR signals are acquired and / or measurements of the MR imaging system.
[0017] In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, an MR receive coil array has multiple RF receive antennas with multiple digital amplifier signal acquisition circuits and multiple sensors with multiple sensor signal acquisition circuits, where the multiple sensors, several sensors of the same type or several sensors of different types, are configured to provide data to one or more digital amplifiers, which are configured to collect measurement data from the multiple sensors of the same or different types and facilitate transfer of the grouped sensor data to a merger circuit, which is configured to combine the data from the individual sensor types and send it to a data channel and transfer the data to the backend of the MR imaging system as a single or multiple data channels.
[0018] In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the MR receive coil array has different types of sensors, and measurement data of the different types of sensors are transferred to a merger circuit, which is configured to merge measurement data from the different types of sensors for each type of sensor.
[0019] A second aspect of the present invention is a method for acquiring measurement data using a sensor node in a magnetic resonance (MR) receive coil array, comprising: - providing an MR receive coil as claimed or as described herein, comprising at least one sensor node comprising a sensor for acquiring measurement data; - collecting measurement data by a sensor, the measurement data being temporarily stored in a local memory; - digitizing the collected measurement data by a sensor signal acquisition circuit; - linking data to a digital amplifier via a first digital interface; - combining in a digital amplifier the measurement data and the amplified digital MR signal received by the RF receiving antenna; - transmitting the combined data to a merger circuit via a second digital interface; - outputting, by said merger circuit, said combined data to a back-end of an MR imaging system; The present invention provides a method having the following structure:
[0020] In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the digital amplifier comprises a digital controller, and the step of combining the measurement data and the amplified digital MR signal received by the RF receiving antenna in the digital amplifier comprises: - initiating a sensor measurement and acquiring sensor data by a digital controller, the sensor data may be temporarily stored in a local memory; - supplying the measurement data and the digitized MR signal in a time-interleaved manner to a communication layer of a digital amplifier; having
[0021] In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the MR receive coil array comprises a number of RF receive antennas with a number of digital amplifier signal acquisition circuits and a number of sensors with a number of sensor signal acquisition circuits, the sensors being several sensors of the same type or several sensors of different types, arranged to provide data to one or several digital amplifiers, and the step of combining the measurement data and the digitally amplified MR signals received by the RF receive antennas in the digital amplifier comprises: aggregating measurement data from multiple sensors of the same or different types by a digital amplifier to facilitate transmission of the grouped sensor data to a merger circuit; A merger circuit combines the data from the individual sensor types into data channels for transmission to the backend of the MR imaging system as single or multiple data channels.
[0022] In an advantageous embodiment of the present invention, the collected sensor data is time-aligned with the main RF data at each digital amplifier.
[0023] The invention further relates to a computer program product having instructions to cause a processor to perform any of the methods described or claimed herein by any of the magnetic resonance (MR) receive coil arrays described or claimed herein. The computer program may be downloaded from a server (e.g., using the Internet) or may be stored on a storage medium.
[0024] These and other aspects of the invention will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter, but such embodiments do not necessarily represent the full scope of the invention, and therefore reference should be made to the claims and this specification for interpreting the scope of the invention. [Brief description of the drawings]
[0025] [Figure 1]FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram of an MR receive coil array having multiple digital RF amplifiers and multiple sensor nodes, according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a digital amplifier signal acquisition circuit having a sensor node according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram of a digital amplifier having an ECG sensor connected thereto, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] 2 illustrates a flowchart of a method for acquiring measurement data by a sensor node in a magnetic resonance (MR) receive coil array, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0026] FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of an MR receive coil array 1 with multiple digital amplifiers and multiple sensor nodes 3 according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 shows an example of a 16-channel MR receive coil array 1. The MR receive coil array 1 consists of 16 radio frequency (RF) receive antennas 2, two of each (RF) receive antenna 2 are interconnected with digital amplifiers 4. FIG. 1 shows that the MR receive coil array 1 is housed in a coil array housing 5 and can be connected to the back-end of an MR imaging system, for example, by a coil cable 7 and a coil plug 8. Four digital amplifiers 4 are interconnected to form a ring network of digital amplifiers 4. The digital amplifiers 4 are interconnected by a digital network 11 and are also connected to the digital network 11 via a digital network connection 12. A common mode RF choke 13 can be introduced in the digital network 11 to block high frequency noise in the galvanic cable. This is not necessary if the digital network is an optical common mode RF choke 13. Each of the digital amplifiers 4 has a digital amplifier signal acquisition circuit 16, which is configured to receive the MR signal from the RF receiving antenna 2 and output an amplified digital MR signal. The network of digital amplifiers 4 transmits the amplified digital MR signal to a merger circuit 6, where the data from the individual channels are combined into a single data stream. The single data stream is further transmitted via a coil cable 7 to the back-end of the MR imaging system, where image reconstruction takes place. Alternatively, partial or complete image reconstruction can be performed in a digital logic circuit located in or next to the merger circuit 6. The MR receive coil array 1 shown in FIG. 1 further has eight additional sensor nodes 3. Each sensor node 3 has a sensor 23 for collecting additional measurement data. Additional measurement data means any data obtained by data measurement other than MR signal acquisition. The additional measurement data can improve MR image quality or system maintenance, or can be used to collect additional clinically relevant patient data.For example, the data can be about the patient being scanned, e.g. electrophysiological data and motion data, or about the scanning environment, e.g. temperature or vibration, or system parameters, e.g. temperature of various key devices, or local magnetic field strength or magnetic field dynamics of the MR imaging system. Thus, in one embodiment of the present invention, the sensor 23 can be, e.g., an electrophysiology sensor for detecting electrophysiological signals, or a motion sensor for detecting the body movements of the examined patient. All these sensors 23 and measurements provide valuable results for improving the diagnostic capabilities of the MR image or system. The sensor node 3 can be configured to detect, e.g., physiological measurements of the examined patient. In particular, the sensor 23 can be designed to measure ExG signals, e.g., ECG and EEG signals. ECG measurements during MR scans are mandatory measurements in some clinical situations. Electroencephalogram measurements are a developing method for MR brain studies. Furthermore, each sensor node 23 comprises a sensor signal acquisition circuit 25, which is configured to digitize the collected measurement data. The sensor signal acquisition circuit 25 is connected to the digital amplifier signal acquisition circuit 16 of the digital amplifier 4 via a first digital interface 27. In one embodiment of the present invention, one digital amplifier 4 can collect data from multiple sensor nodes 3. In a particular embodiment, the sensor network utilizes a common ground of the MR sensor network. Also, a dedicated common reference ExG electrode 26 is located on the MR receiver coil array 1. The ExG measurement can use a dry or capacitive electrode 24 built into the MR receiver coil array 1 to contact or be in close proximity to the patient's body when the MR receiver coil array 1 is placed on the patient.
[0027] FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a digital amplifier signal acquisition circuit 16 with a sensor node 3 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The digital amplifier signal acquisition circuit 16 includes a digital amplifier 4 that amplifies the received MR signal from the RF receiving antenna 2 to output a digitally amplified MR signal. The sensor node 3 is connected to the digital amplifier 4 via a first digital interface 27. Data from the sensor node 3 is provided to the communication layer in a time-interleaved manner with the MRI data. The data is made available to the digital network 11. The digital network 11 transmits the data via a second digital interface 28 to the merger circuit 6. In the merger circuit 6, the data from a designated set of sensor nodes is combined to generate a combined signal for each type of data, e.g. MR, motion, or electrophysiology sensor data.
[0028] Figure 3 shows an electronic signal acquisition circuit 16 with a digital amplifier 4 to which an ECG sensor 23 is connected according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 3 shows two RF receiving antennas 2, each connected to a low noise amplifier 17 via a detuning circuit 14 and a matching circuit 15. By means of an AD converter 18 and a digital signal processor 19, the signal is digitized and made available to the digital network 11. Furthermore, the digital amplifier 4 has a power supply 21 with a DC-DC converter 22. In the embodiment shown in Figure 3, an ECG sensor 23 with ECG electrodes 24 is shown. The ECG sensor 23 is powered by the power supply 21. Furthermore, the ECG sensor 23 receives commands from the amplifier and returns data to the amplifier. In particular, the digital controller 20 can be realized as a microprocessor.
[0029] The ECG data collected at each sensor node 3 is locally digitized and linked to the digital amplifier 4 via a first digital interface 27. For example, the first digital interface 27 can be an I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) or an SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface). The digital amplifier 4 also comprises a digital controller 20. The ECG data is fed to a communication layer via the digital controller 20 in a time-interleaved manner together with the MRI data and is further transmitted to the merger circuit 6 via a second digital interface 28. In the merger circuit 6, the ECG data is combined with a common mode or ground ECG electrode, called the common mode or ground ECG electrode, into the ECG data stream. It may be important to have two ECG channels per digital amplifier node so that differential ECG measurements can be realized. Furthermore, each node can also generate a local reference with a dedicated electrode, e.g. dry or capacitive. The data stream is transmitted via a coil cable 7 to the back-end of the MR imaging device for ECG waveform extraction. Alternatively, ECG extraction can be performed in or adjacent to the merger device such that only the recombined ECG signal is provided to the backend. The implementation described above is to collect data and feed it to the backend of the MR imaging system. This allows for easy triggering of MRI scans based on characteristics of the incoming ECG data. The ECG measurements are controlled through the backend via a data transport layer that sends control data to the digital controller 20. The digital controller 20 can use dedicated software routines that can control the ECG measurements and control the ECG data acquisition through the digital interface 27.
[0030] FIG. 4 shows a flow chart of a method for acquiring measurement data using a sensor node 3 in a magnetic resonance (MR) receive coil array 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. In step S1, the magnetic resonance (MR) receive coil array 1 has at least one sensor node 3 with a sensor 23 for acquiring measurement data. In step S2, the measurement data is collected by the sensor 23. In an embodiment of the present invention, each sensor can be individually enabled by a user and can receive commands to control data acquisition. In step S3, the collected measurement data is digitized by the sensor signal acquisition circuit 25. In step S4, the data is linked to the digital amplifier 4 via a digital interface 27. In step S4, the measurement data and the amplified digital MR signal received by the RF receive antenna 2 are combined in the digital amplifier 4. In step S5, the combined data is transferred to the combining circuit 6 via a second digital interface 28. In step S6, the combined data is output by the merging circuit 6 to the back-end of the MR imaging system. In one embodiment of the present invention, the digital amplifier 4 has a digital controller 20, and the step of combining the measurement data and the digitally amplified MR signal received by the RF receiving antenna 2 in the digital amplifier 4 includes a step of the digital controller providing the measurement data and the digitally amplified MR signal to a communication layer in a time-interleaved manner.
[0031] In another embodiment of the present invention, the MR receiver coil array 1 has multiple RF receiver antennas 2 with multiple digital amplifier signal acquisition circuits 16, multiple sensors 23, and multiple sensor signal acquisition circuits 25, each sensor 23 arranged in a channel, and the step of combining the measurement data in the digital amplifier with the digitally amplified MR signal received by the RF receiver antenna includes the steps of collecting and combining the measurement data from the multiple channels and transmitting the grouped channels to a merger circuit 6, combining the data from the individual channels into a single data stream, and forwarding the single data stream to the back end of the MR imaging system or only to a digital data processor.
[0032] While the present invention has been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and the foregoing description, such illustration and description are to be considered as illustrative or exemplary and not restrictive. The present invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Other variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art in practicing the claimed invention, from a study of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite article "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. Mutually different dependently recited means may be advantageously combined. Any reference signs in the claims should not be construed as limiting the scope thereof. Moreover, for the sake of clarity, not all elements in the drawings have been labeled with reference signs. [Explanation of symbols]
[0033] MR receive coil array 1 RF receiving antenna 2 Sensor node 3 Digital Amplifier 4 Coil array housing 5 Merger circuit 6 Coil Cable 7 Coil plug 8 Coil Loop Connection 10 Digital Network 11 Digital Network Connections 12 Common Mode RF Choke 13 Detuning Circuit 14 Matching circuit 15 Digital amplifier signal acquisition circuit 16 Low Noise Amplifier 17 Analog-to-Digital Converters 18 Digital Signal Processors 19 Digital Controller 20 Power Management Circuit 21 DC-DC Converter 22 Sensors 23 Electrodes / Transducers 24 Sensor signal acquisition circuit 25 Reference electrode 26 First Digital Interface 27 Second Digital Interface 28
Claims
1. 1. A magnetic resonance (MR) receive coil array for a MR imaging system, comprising: A radio frequency (RF) receiving antenna; a digital amplifier signal acquisition circuit having a digital amplifier, the digital amplifier signal acquisition circuit configured to receive an MR signal from the RF receiving antenna and output an amplified digital MR signal; a sensor node having a sensor for collecting measurement data other than MR signal acquisition, further comprising a sensor signal acquisition circuit configured to digitize collected measurement data, the sensor signal acquisition circuit connected to the digital amplifier signal acquisition circuit via a first digital interface, the sensor signal acquisition circuit configured to link the digitized measurement data from the sensor signal acquisition circuit to the digital amplifier via the first digital interface, the digital amplifier configured to combine the digitized measurement data from the sensor signal acquisition circuit with the amplified digital MR signal; having The MR receive coil array has a merger circuit configured to receive the combined amplified digital MR signal and the digitized measurement data from the digital amplifier via a second digital interface and output the combined data to a back-end or digital data processor of an MR imaging system.
2. The MR receive coil array of claim 1 , wherein the sensor has a common ground with the digital amplifier.
3. MR receive coil array according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the sensors of the sensor nodes are configured to detect physiological measurements of a patient being examined.
4. The MR receive coil array of claim 3 , wherein the sensor is an electrophysiological sensor or a motion sensor.
5. The MR receive coil array of claim 4 , wherein the sensor is a capacitive electrophysiological sensor having capacitive electrodes.
6. 5. An MR receive coil array according to claim 1, wherein the sensors are configured to measure parameters of an environment in which the MR signals are collected and / or to measure parameters of the MR imaging system.
7. 7. The MR receive coil array of claim 6, wherein the measurements of the environment in which the MR signals are collected are temperature and / or vibration of the MR imaging system, and / or the measurements of the MR imaging system are operating conditions of components of the MR imaging system, and / or the local magnetic field strength distribution or dynamics of the MR imaging system.
8. 8. The MR receive coil array of claim 1, comprising a plurality of RF receive antennas with a plurality of digital amplifier signal acquisition circuits and a plurality of sensors with a plurality of sensor signal acquisition circuits, the sensors being several sensors of the same type or several sensors of different types, configured to provide data to one or several digital amplifiers, the digital amplifiers configured to collect measurement data from the several sensors of the same type or different types and facilitate transmission of grouped sensor data to the merger circuit, the merger circuit configured to combine data from the individual sensor types and provide them to a data channel and transmit the data as a single or multiple data channels to the backend of the MR imaging system.
9. 9. The MR receive coil array of claim 8, wherein the MR receive coil array has different types of sensors, the measurement data of the different types of sensors being transmitted to the merger circuit, and the merger circuit is configured to merge the measurement data from the different types of sensors for each type of sensor.
10. 1. A method for acquiring measurement data using sensor nodes in a magnetic resonance (MR) receive coil array, comprising: Providing an MR receive coil array according to any one of claims 1 to 9, comprising sensor nodes having sensors for acquiring measurement data other than MR signal acquisition; collecting measurement data by the sensor, the measurement data being temporarily stored in a local memory; digitizing the collected measurement data by the sensor signal acquisition circuitry; linking the measurement data to the digital amplifier via the first digital interface; combining, in the digital amplifier, the measurement data with the amplified digital MR signal received by the RF receiving antenna; transmitting the combined data to a combining circuit via the second digital interface; outputting, by the combining circuitry, the combined data to a back-end of the MR imaging system; The method according to claim 1,
11. The digital amplifier has a digital controller, and the step of combining, in the digital amplifier, the measurement data and the amplified digital MR signal received by the RF receiving antenna comprises: initiating sensor measurements and acquiring sensor data by the digital controller, the sensor data may be temporarily stored in a local memory; inputting said measurement data and said digital MR signal into a communication layer of said digital amplifier in a time-interleaved manner; 11. The method of claim 10, comprising:
12. The MR receive coil array includes a plurality of RF receive antennas having a plurality of digital amplifier signal acquisition circuits and a plurality of sensors having a plurality of sensor signal acquisition circuits, the sensors including a plurality of sensors of the same type or a plurality of sensors of different types, and configured to provide data to one or more digital amplifiers, and the step of combining the measurement data with the amplified digital MR signals received by the RF receive antennas in the digital amplifiers includes: collecting measurement data from multiple sensors of the same or different types by said digital amplifier, facilitating transmission of grouped sensor data to a merger circuit; combining the data from each sensor type into a data channel by a merger circuit and transmitting the data as single or multiple data channels to a back end of the MR imaging system; 12. The method according to claim 10 or 11, comprising:
13. 13. The method of claim 10, wherein the collected sensor data is time-aligned with the main RF data at each digital amplifier.
14. 10. An MR imaging device comprising an MR receive coil array according to any one of the preceding claims.
15. 14. A computer program comprising instructions which, when said computer program is executed by a processor, cause said processor to carry out the steps of the method according to any one of claims 10 to 13 with an MR receive coil array according to any one of claims 1 to 9.