Hybrid MRA Imaging Combining TOF and BB Methods
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods, such as MRA, face challenges in clearly visualizing various structures of blood vessels, particularly turbulent parts and peripheral vessels, due to limitations in signal intensity contrast between blood vessels and background tissues.
Innovation Solution
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus that acquires and generates images with enhanced contrast by combining data from different pulse sequences, such as TOF and BB methods, to create hybrid MRA images with higher signal intensity differences between blood vessels and background, allowing for improved visualization of blood vessel structures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional TOF method is used for MRA, then arteries with high flow velocity are visualized at high signal intensity, but turbulent parts and peripheral blood vessels cannot be easily visualized
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines TOF method images (white-blood method showing arteries at high signal intensity) with BB method images (black-blood method showing blood vessels at low signal intensity) to create a hybrid MRA image that displays both artery and vein information with enhanced contrast, enabling visualization of turbulent parts and peripheral vessels that were previously difficult to detect
2Measurement precision
If BB method is used for MRA, then low blood flows and blood vessel walls are visualized, but peripheral tissues also show low signal intensity making it difficult to separately visualize blood vessels
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges BB method images with TOF method images, where the TOF component provides high signal intensity for blood vessels against background tissues, while the BB component enhances the visualization of blood vessel walls and low-flow regions, resulting in a hybrid image that overcomes the background tissue interference problem
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different processing weights to different regions of the image, emphasizing blood vessel regions from the BB method while maintaining background tissue visibility through TOF method contribution, thereby achieving local optimization of contrast between blood vessels and surrounding tissues
3Loss of information
If separate WB and BB method images are acquired and processed, then information on both arteries and veins can be obtained, but imaging time increases and processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines data acquisition from both TOF and BB methods into a unified hybrid MRA imaging protocol, allowing simultaneous capture of arterial and venous information in a single integrated process rather than requiring separate imaging sessions, thereby reducing total imaging time while maintaining comprehensive blood vessel information
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The approach enables clearer visualization of blood vessels with higher contrast-to-noise ratios, particularly for thin peripheral vessels and turbulent parts, compared to traditional methods, while reducing imaging time and eliminating the need for certain contrast media.
Implementation Method 1
magnetic resonance imaging apparatus that obtains information for medical diagnoses on the basis of a magnetic resonance signal emitted from a subject
Data Source
AI summary
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes an acquisition unit that acquires first data in which a tissue of interest has higher signal intensity than a background and second data in which the tissue of interest has lower signal intensity than the background, with regard to images of the same region of the same subject, and a generation unit that generates, on the basis of the first data and the second data, third data in which the contrast of the tissue of interest to the background is higher than those in the first and second data.