MRI Apparatus Combining MRA and Weighted Images
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current MRI examination techniques require separate imaging times for blood vessels and weighted images, leading to longer overall examination times due to the need for multiple image captures with specific pulse sequences to achieve high-quality MRA images.
Innovation Solution
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus that acquires multiple images using different pulse sequences and combines them using region-specific combination parameters to enhance the contrast between blood vessels and other tissues, allowing simultaneous acquisition of MRA and weighted images.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If separate MRA imaging is performed using specific pulse sequences to achieve high-quality blood vessel images, then MRA image quality is improved, but examination time is extended
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines MRA imaging and weighted image imaging into a single imaging process. By acquiring multiple images with different pulse sequences simultaneously and combining them through calculation, the system achieves both high-quality MRA images and weighted images without requiring separate imaging sessions, thereby resolving the contradiction between image quality and examination time
Solution Approach 2:
The imaging system performs multiple functions using the same imaging resources. The pulse sequences and image acquisition process serve dual purposes: generating both MRA images for blood vessel visualization and weighted images for tissue structure diagnosis, eliminating the need for dedicated separate imaging protocols
2Loss of time
If multiple pulse sequences are used to capture both MRA and weighted images simultaneously, then examination time is reduced, but image combination complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The imaging process is segmented into distinct acquisition phases and combination phases. Multiple pulse sequences acquire different image types simultaneously, then these images are separated and combined through calculation using specific formulas. This segmentation manages complexity by organizing the multi-sequence process into structured steps rather than a monolithic complex operation
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses calculation-based image combination as an intermediary process between raw image acquisition and final diagnostic imaging. By introducing mathematical combination operations that weight and integrate images from different sequences, the system manages the complexity of multi-sequence processing while achieving the dual benefit of reduced examination time and high image quality
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 simultaneous acquisition of high-quality MRA images and images of tissue structures other than blood vessels, thereby reducing the overall MRI examination time.
Implementation Method 1
MRI apparatuses are medical image diagnostic apparatuses that mainly use a proton nuclear magnetic resonance phenomenon
Implementation Method 2
a method in which a blood vessel has low luminance using the fact that magnetic susceptibility of a blood vessel is different from magnetic susceptibility of a portion other than a blood vessel (blood sensitive imaging)
Data Source
AI summary
A system is disclosed to simultaneously acquire a magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) image and a plurality of images in which the structure of a tissue other than a blood vessel can be ascertained without performing imaging for the MRA image, and to shorten a time of MR examination. Two or more kinds of physical property dependent images obtained from a nuclear magnetic resonance signal measured in accordance with a predetermined pulse sequence under a plurality of imaging conditions are combined using a predetermined combination function. At this time, a plurality of division regions are set in the physical property dependent image, and the combination parameter satisfying a condition that a difference between a pixel value of the specific tissue and a pixel value of a tissue other than the specific tissue increases is determined at each of the division regions in the actually measured two or more kinds of physical property dependent images, using standard data of the two or more kinds of physical property dependent images, and the combination parameter is used to combine the two or more kinds of images.