Noise suppression methods and apparatus

1. A method of operating a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system to avoid noise in an environment of the MRI system, the method comprising:

obtaining at least one noise measurement of the environment from each of a plurality of frequency bands within a spectrum of interest;

selecting one of the plurality of frequency bands based, at least in part, on the respective at least one noise measurement; and

configuring at least one primary transmit/receive coil of the low-field MRI system to operate at a frequency within the selected frequency band.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting one of the plurality of frequency bands comprises selecting the one of the plurality of frequency bands having the least noise based on the respective at least one noise signal.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one additional component of the low-field MRI system is configured based on the selected frequency band.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein a magnetic field strength of a B 0 magnetic field produced by a B 0 magnet of the low-field MRI system is configured based on the selected frequency band.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the at least one noise measurement is performed by the at least one primary transmit/receive coil.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the at least one noise measurement is performed by at least one auxiliary sensor.

7. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system capable of being configured to operate in different modes to avoid noise in an environment of the MRI system, the MRI system comprising:

at least one primary transmit/receive coil to detect magnetic resonance signals; and

at least one controller configured to receive at least one noise measurement of the environment for each of a plurality of frequency bands within a spectrum of interest, select one of the plurality of frequency bands based, at least in part, on the respective at least one noise measurement, and configure the at least one primary transmit/receive coil to operate at a frequency within the selected frequency band.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the at least one controller is configured to select the one of the plurality of frequency bands having the least noise based on the respective at least one noise measurement.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the system further comprises a B 0 magnet and the at least one controller is configured to cause the B 0 magnet to produce a B 0 magnetic field at a field strength based on the selected frequency band.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the at least one controller receives the at least one noise measurement by operating the at least one primary transmit/receive coil.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the at least one controller receives the at least one noise measurement by operating at least one auxiliary sensor.

12. A method of suppressing noise detected in an environment of a magnetic resonance imaging system, the method comprising:

acquiring at least one first magnetic resonance signal by applying a first pulse sequence using a first spatial encoding;

acquiring at least one second magnetic resonance signal by applying the first pulse sequence using the first spatial encoding;

computing a difference between the at least one first magnetic resonance signal and the at least one second magnetic resonance signal; and

estimating noise based, at least in part, on the computed difference.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising computing a transfer function based, at least in part, on the estimated noise.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising suppressing noise in the at least one first magnetic resonance signal and/or the at least one second magnetic resonance signal using the transfer function.

15. The method of claim 12 , comprising aligning the at least one first magnetic resonance signal and the at least one second magnetic resonance signal using a phase shift.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the first pulse sequence is a balanced steady state free precession (bSSFP) pulse sequence.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein the at least one first magnetic resonance signal comprises a first plurality of averaged magnetic resonance signals acquired using the first spatial encoding.

18. An apparatus for suppressing noise detected in an environment of a magnetic resonance imaging system, the system comprising:

at least one transmit/receive coil configured to, when operated, produce a magnetic field configured to excite a magnetic resonance response, and to detect magnetic resonance signals;

at least one gradient coil for spatial encoding; and

at least one controller configured to:

operate the at least one transmit/receive coil and the at least one gradient coil according to a first pulse sequence using a first spatial encoding to acquire at least one first magnetic resonance signal;

operate the at least one transmit/receive coil and the at least one gradient coil according to the first pulse sequence using the first spatial encoding to acquire at least one second magnetic resonance signal;

compute a difference between the at least one first magnetic resonance signal and the at least one second magnetic resonance signal; and

estimate noise based, at least in part, on the computed difference.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the at least one controller is configured to compute a transfer function based, at least in part, on the estimated noise.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the at least one controller is configured to suppress noise in the at least one first magnetic resonance signal and/or the at least one second magnetic resonance signal using the transfer function.

21. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the at least one controller is configured to align the at least one first magnetic resonance signal and the at least one second magnetic resonance signal using a phase shift.

22. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the first pulse sequence is a balanced steady state free precession (bSSFP) pulse sequence.

23. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the at least one first magnetic resonance signal comprises a first plurality of averaged magnetic resonance signals acquired using the first spatial encoding.

24. The method of claim 16 , wherein the at least one first magnetic resonance signal and the at least one second magnetic resonance signal are both used to produce at least one magnetic resonance image.

25. The method of claim 17 , wherein the at least one first magnetic resonance signal and the at least one second magnetic resonance signal are both used to produce at least one magnetic resonance image.

26. The method of claim 12 , wherein the noise estimate is used to dynamically suppress noise in magnetic resonance signals obtained during operation of the magnetic resonance imaging system.

27. The apparatus of claim 22 , wherein the at least one controller is configured to use both the at least one first magnetic resonance signal and the at least one second magnetic resonance signal to produce at least one magnetic resonance image.

28. The apparatus of claim 23 , wherein the at least one controller is configured to use both the at least one first magnetic resonance signal and the at least one second magnetic resonance signal to produce at least one magnetic resonance image.

29. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the at least one controller is configured to use the noise estimate to dynamically suppress noise in magnetic resonance signals obtained during operation of the magnetic resonance imaging system.