Granted Patent B2

US 12,186,067 · App. 17/645,753 · Granted Jan 7, 2025

Inventors: Jingyuan Lyu (Houston, TX); Qi Liu (Houston, TX); Yongquan Ye (Houston, TX); Jian Xu (Houston, TX); Zhongqi Zhang (Houston, TX)

Assignee: SHANGHAI UNITED IMAGING HEALTHCARE CO., LTD.

A61B5/055G01R33/482G01R33/5611G01R33/5616G01R33/5617

Abstract

Claims (71)

1. A method for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) implemented on a computing device having at least one processing device and at least one storage device, the method comprising:

obtaining a plurality of imaging signals collected by applying a wave encoding gradient to a region of interest (ROI) of a subject;

obtaining a plurality of auxiliary signals associated with the ROI;

obtaining a point spread function corresponding to the wave encoding gradient;

determining, based on the plurality of auxiliary signals, temporal information relating to at least one temporal dimension of the ROI, the temporal information including at least one temporal basis function relating to the at least one temporal dimension;

determining, based on the temporal information, the plurality of imaging signals, and the point spread function, spatial information relating to at least one spatial dimension of the ROI, the spatial information including at least one spatial basis function relating to the at least one spatial dimension; and

generating at least one target image of the ROI based on the temporal information and the spatial information.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wave encoding gradient leads to a corkscrew trajectory in the k-space, the wave encoding gradient includes a first oscillating encoding gradient in a first direction and a second oscillating encoding gradient in a second direction, and a phase difference between the first oscillating encoding gradient and the second oscillating encoding gradient is configured to affect a rotation angle of the corkscrew trajectory.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of imaging signals are obtained by filling target magnetic resonance (MR) signals into the k-space with variable densities or a uniform density.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the point spread function corresponding to the wave encoding gradient includes:

generating a first image based on a first set of k-space data, wherein the first set of k-space data is obtained without applying the wave encoding gradient to the ROI;

generating a second image based on a second set of k-space data, wherein the second set of k-space data is obtained by applying the wave encoding gradient to the ROI, the first set of k-space data and the second set of k-space data corresponding to the same region in the k-space; and

determining the point spread function based on the first image and the second image.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining, based on the temporal information, the plurality of imaging signals, and the point spread function, the spatial information relating to the spatial dimension of the ROI includes:

constructing a target function based on the plurality of imaging signals, the temporal information, and the point spread function; and

determining the spatial information by solving the target function.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein determining the spatial information by solving the target function includes:

determining estimated spatial information;

determining estimated imaging data based on the estimated spatial information, the point spread function, and the temporal information, the point spread function being configured to make the estimated imaging data involve an effect of the wave encoding gradient;

determining a difference between the plurality of imaging signals and the estimated imaging data; and

determining the spatial information by solving, based on the difference, the target function.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the target function includes

a comparison item configured to limit the difference between the plurality of imaging signals and the estimated imaging data, the comparison item including the point spread function; and

a regularization item configured to limit the estimated spatial information, the regularization item being a total variation of the spatial dimension of the estimated spatial information.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of auxiliary signals and the plurality of imaging signals are acquired interleaved during an MRI scan of the subject, including:

acquiring the plurality auxiliary signals by repeatedly sampling a same location of a k-space; and

performing every sampling of the same location of the k-space before, after, or during a sampling of a first count of corkscrew trajectories.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the target image is expressed by a product of a core tensor and (N+1) basis matrices according to a low-rank tensor image model, wherein

the core tensor is configured to govern an interaction between the (N+1) basis matrices,

the (N+1) basis matrices include a spatial factor matrix and N temporal factor matrix or matrices,

the spatial factor matrix includes one or more spatial basis functions relating to the at least one spatial dimension of the ROI, and

each of the N temporal factor matrix or matrices corresponds to one of the at least one temporal dimension and includes one or more temporal basis functions relating to a corresponding temporal dimension.

10. The method of claim 4 , wherein the point spread function is determined based on a division between the first image and the second image.

11. The method of claim 4 , wherein the determining the point spread function based on the first image and the second image, including:

determining a first phase matrix of the first image based on values of pixels or voxels in the first image, wherein a value in the first phase matrix of the first image is a phase value of a corresponding pixel or voxel in the first image;

determining a second phase matrix of the second image based on values of pixels or voxels in the second image, wherein a value in the second phase matrix of the second image is a phase value of a corresponding pixel or voxel in the second image; and

determining a phase difference matrix between the first phase matrix of the first image and the second phase matrix of the second image as the point spread function by determining a ratio between the first phase matrix of the first image and the second phase matrix of the second image.

12. A system for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), comprising:

at least one storage device including a set of instructions; and

at least one processor in communication with the at least one storage device, wherein when executing the set of instructions, the at least one processor is directed to cause the system to perform operations including:

obtaining a plurality of imaging signals collected by applying a wave encoding gradient to a region of interest (ROI) of a subject;

obtaining a plurality of auxiliary signals associated with the ROI;

obtaining a point spread function corresponding to the wave encoding gradient;

determining, based on the plurality of auxiliary signals, temporal information relating to at least one temporal dimension of the ROI, the temporal information including at least one temporal basis function relating to the at least one temporal dimension;

determining, based on the temporal information, the plurality of imaging signals, and the point spread function, spatial information relating to at least one spatial dimension of the ROI, the spatial information including at least one spatial basis function relating to the at least one spatial dimension; and

generating at least one target image of the ROI based on the temporal information and the spatial information.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the wave encoding gradient leads to a corkscrew trajectory in the k-space, the wave encoding gradient includes a first oscillating encoding gradient in a first direction and a second oscillating encoding gradient in a second direction, and a phase difference between the first oscillating encoding gradient and the second oscillating encoding gradient is configured to affect a rotation angle of the corkscrew trajectory.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the plurality of imaging signals are obtained by filling target magnetic resonance (MR) signals into the k-space with variable densities.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the plurality of imaging signals are obtained by filling target magnetic resonance (MR) signals into the k-space with a uniform density.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein obtaining the point spread function corresponding to the wave encoding gradient includes:

generating a first image based on a first set of k-space data, wherein the first set of k-space data is obtained without applying the wave encoding gradient to the ROI;

generating a second image based on a second set of k-space data, wherein the second set of k-space data is obtained by applying the wave encoding gradient to the ROI, the first set of k-space data and the second set of k-space data corresponding to the same region in the k-space; and

determining the point spread function based on the first image and the second image.

17. The system of claim 12 , wherein determining, based on the temporal information, the plurality of imaging signals, and the point spread function, the spatial information relating to the spatial dimension of the ROI includes:

constructing a target function based on the plurality of imaging signals, the temporal information, and the point spread function; and

determining the spatial information by solving the target function.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein determining the spatial information by solving the target function includes:

determining estimated spatial information;

determining estimated imaging data based on the estimated spatial information, the point spread function, and the temporal information, the point spread function being configured to make the estimated imaging data involve an effect of the wave encoding gradient;

determining a difference between the plurality of imaging signals and the estimated imaging data; and

determining the spatial information by solving, based on the difference, the target function.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the target function includes

a comparison item configured to limit the difference between the plurality of imaging signals and the estimated imaging data, the comparison item including the point spread function; and

a regularization item configured to limit the estimated spatial information, the regularization item being a total variation of the spatial dimension of the estimated spatial information.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising at least one set of instructions, wherein when executed by one or more processors of a computing device, the at least one set of instructions causes the computing device to perform a method, the method comprising:

obtaining a plurality of imaging signals collected by applying a wave encoding gradient to a region of interest (ROI) of a subject;

obtaining a plurality of auxiliary signals associated with the ROI;

obtaining a point spread function corresponding to the wave encoding gradient;

determining, based on the plurality of auxiliary signals, temporal information relating to at least one temporal dimension of the ROI, the temporal information including at least one temporal basis function relating to the at least one temporal dimension;

determining, based on the temporal information, the plurality of imaging signals, and the point spread function, spatial information relating to at least one spatial dimension of the ROI, the spatial information including at least one spatial basis function relating to the at least one spatial dimension; and

generating at least one target image of the ROI based on the temporal information and the spatial information.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (24)