Intraoperative MRI Image Registration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Intraoperative MRI scanners provide images with lower spatial resolution and a smaller field of view compared to standard diagnostic MRI scanners, limiting their usability during medical procedures like brain surgery, as they often deform brain tissue features and cannot maintain high-resolution imaging post-craniotomy.
Innovation Solution
A method involving the registration of high-resolution preoperative MRI images with intraoperative MRI images using rigid and non-rigid body transforms to generate high-quality, high-resolution intraoperative MRI images contemporaneous with the medical procedure, allowing for real-time monitoring and guidance during surgeries.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If intraoperative MRI scanners are used during medical procedures, then real-time imaging capability is improved, but spatial resolution deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines preoperative high-resolution MRI images with intraoperative low-resolution MRI images through image registration and transformation techniques. By merging the high spatial resolution data from preoperative scans with the real-time temporal data from intraoperative scans, the system produces composite images that maintain both high resolution and real-time capability.
2Ease of operation
If intraoperative MRI scanners are used during medical procedures, then accessibility to target site is improved, but image quality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary high-resolution MRI scanning of the target site before the medical procedure begins. This preoperative high-resolution imaging data is then registered and transformed to match the intraoperative low-resolution images, allowing the system to enhance the quality of real-time images without compromising accessibility during the procedure.
3Measurement precision
If standard MRI scanners are used for high resolution imaging, then spatial resolution is improved, but accessibility during procedure deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the imaging process into two distinct phases: preoperative high-resolution scanning using standard MRI scanners, and intraoperative low-resolution scanning using compact scanners that provide accessibility. The segmented data from both phases are then integrated through image registration and transformation, allowing each phase to optimize for its specific purpose while achieving overall high-resolution real-time imaging capability.
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
This approach enables the generation of high-quality, high-resolution intraoperative MRI images that maintain the accuracy and detail of preoperative images, facilitating precise real-time monitoring and guidance during medical procedures, even post-craniotomy, by aligning and transforming preoperative and intraoperative images effectively.
Implementation Method 1
the person is placed in a relatively strong, uniform 'polarizing magnetic field' to align spins of atoms in the person's body having magnetic moments along a same axis, conventionally referred to as a z-axis
Implementation Method 2
A pulse of radio frequency (RF) energy is transmitted to illuminate the ROI and tilt the magnetic moments and thereby the spins of atoms in a thin slice of the ROI away from the z-axis
Implementation Method 3
the ROI is exposed to a perturbing magnetic field, which is also directed along the z-axis but is configured to have a desired time dependent spatial gradient along orthogonal x and y axes that are perpendicular to the z-axis
Implementation Method 4
The flipped atoms precess around the z-axis with Larmor frequencies that are proportional to the magnitude of the composite magnetic field at the x and y coordinates in the slice at which they are located
Implementation Method 5
a standard MRI scanner typically comprises a large tube or donut shaped housing that houses superconducting coils, which are excited to produce the polarizing magnetic field
Data Source
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AI summary
A method of providing an intraoperative magnetic resonance image of a target site of a patient body at which a medical procedure is performed, the method comprising: acquiring a high resolution preoperative magnetic resonance image (MRI), MRI0, of a first region of the patient comprising the target site, the MRI0 image comprising a plurality of slices MRI0 n having voxels; acquiring a preoperative, iMRI0 image of a second region of the patient comprising the target site, using an iMRI scanner having a field of view (FOV), the iMRI0 image comprising plurality of slices iMRI0 m having voxels; registering the MRI0 image to the iMRI0 image to provide a rigid body transform (RT0) that transforms the MRI0 to the iMRI0 image; acquiring an 1MRI1 image of the target site during performance of the procedure; registering the image iMRI0 to the iMRIj image to obtain a non-rigid body transform (NRT); and applying RT0 and NRT to MRI0 to provide a high resolution (hiQ-iMRIj) image.