Method and apparatus for optimization of a pulse sequence for a magnetic resonance system

1. A method to optimize a pulse sequence for operating a magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner in order to acquire magnetic resonance data comprising:

providing an unoptimized pulse sequence as an input to a processor, said unoptimized pulse sequence including at least one refocusing pulse, a readout gradient pulse that occurs in said sequence temporally after the refocusing pulse, and at least one readout spoiler pulse, and said unoptimized pulse sequence, when used to operate said magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner, causing said scanner to execute a scan, having a scan duration and an associated scanner noise level, in order to acquire said magnetic resonance data with a data resolution;

in said processor, automatically shortening a pulse duration of said readout gradient pulse while keeping a readout gradient moment constant;

in said processor, adapting a pulse shape of the readout spoiler pulse, without changing a total spoiler moment, so as to produce an optimally shortened pulse duration of the readout spoiler pulse that occurs when, by adapting the pulse shape of the readout spoiler pulse, a maximum amplitude of the readout spoiler pulse equals the amplitude of the readout gradient pulse and an edge steepness of the readout spoiler pulse is minimized;

transforming said unoptimized pulse sequence into an optimized pulse sequence comprising the readout spoiler pulse having said optimally short duration and adapted pulse shape, and said readout gradient pulse with the adapted pulse duration, and making the optimized pulse sequence available at an output of the processor in electronic form in a format configured to use said optimized pulse sequence to operate said magnetic resonance system; and

from said processor, operating said magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner to execute a scan with said optimized pulse sequence with a lower noise level than, and the same scan duration and data resolution as in, the scan executed with said unoptimized pulse sequence.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising adapting said pulse shape of said readout spoiler pulse without changing the readout spoiler moment thereof.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising selecting said unoptimized pulse sequence supplied to said processor from the group consisting of spin echo sequences having an echo spacing and turbo spin echo sequences having an echo spacing, and comprising producing said optimally shortened pulse duration of the refocusing pulse and adapting the pulse shape of the gradient spoiler pulse while leaving said echo spacing unmodified.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3 wherein said unoptimized pulse sequence supplied to said processor comprises a plurality of readout gradient pulses, and comprising producing said optimally shortened pulse duration for each of multiple readout gradient pulses in said plurality of readout gradient pulses.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said unoptimized pulse sequence also comprises a slice selection gradient spoiler pulse and a phase coding pulse, each having an edge steepness, and comprising reducing the edge steepness of at least one of said slice selection gradient pulse and said phase coding pulse in adaptation to the shortened pulse duration of the readout gradient pulse.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said magnetic resonance system has at least one acoustic resonance frequency that is within a frequency spectrum of the adapted gradient spoiler pulse and comprising, in said processor, determining whether said readout gradient pulse with said optimally shortened pulse duration causes said frequency spectrum to shift so that said acoustic resonance frequency is outside of said frequency spectrum and, if so, modifying the pulse duration of the readout gradient pulse to deviate from said optimally shortened pulse duration.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of providing said unoptimized pulse sequence as an input to a processor comprises providing an unoptimized pulse sequence that includes a slice selection gradient pulse and a gradient spoiler pulse, and wherein said method further comprises:

in said processor, automatically shortening a pulse duration of said refocusing pulse;

in said processor, automatically adapting a pulse duration of the slice selection gradient pulse to the shortened pulse duration of the refocusing pulse;

in said processor, increasing an amplitude of the slice selection gradient pulse to cause a same slice thickness to be selected by the slice selection pulse as before shortening of the pulse duration of the refocusing pulse; and

in said processor, adapting a pulse shape of the gradient spoiler pulse, without changing a total spoiler moment, so as to produce an optimally shortened pulse duration of the refocusing pulse that occurs when, by adapting the pulse shape of the gradient spoiler pulse, a maximum amplitude of the gradient spoiler pulse equals the amplitude of the slice selection gradient pulse and an edge steepness of the gradient spoiler pulse is minimized.

8. A magnetic resonance apparatus comprising:

a magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner;

a pulse optimization computer comprising:

a processor having an input interface provided with an unoptimized pulse sequence as an input to the processor, said unoptimized pulse sequence including at least one refocusing pulse, a readout gradient pulse that occurs in said sequence temporally after the refocusing pulse, and at least one readout spoiler pulse, and said unoptimized pulse sequence, when used to operate said magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner, causing said scanner to execute a scan, having a scan duration and an associated scanner noise level, in order to acquire said magnetic resonance data with a data resolution;

said processor being configured to automatically shorten a pulse duration of said readout gradient pulse while keeping a readout gradient moment constant;

said processor being configured to adapt a pulse shape of the readout spoiler pulse, without changing a total spoiler moment, so as to produce an optimally shortened pulse duration of the readout spoiler pulse that occurs when, by adapting the pulse shape of the readout spoiler pulse, a maximum amplitude of the readout spoiler pulse equals the amplitude of the readout gradient pulse and an edge steepness of the readout spoiler pulse is minimized;

said processor being configured to transform the unoptimized pulse sequence into an optimized pulse sequence comprising the readout spoiler pulse having said optimally short duration and adapted pulse shape, and said readout gradient pulse with the adapted pulse duration, and to make the optimized pulse available at an output interface of the processor in electronic form in a format configured to use said optimized pulse sequence to operate said magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner; and

a control unit supplied with said optimized pulse sequence from said output interface of said processor of said pulse sequence optimization computer, said control unit being configured to operate said data acquisition scanner to execute a scan with said optimized pulse sequence with a lower noise level than, and the same scan duration and data resolution as in, the scan executed with said unoptimized pulse sequence.

9. A non-transitory, computer-readable data storage medium computer system of a magnetic resonance apparatus and comprises a magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner encoded with programming instructions, said data storage medium being loaded into a and said programming instructions causing said computer system to:

receive an unoptimized pulse sequence as an input to the processor, said unoptimized pulse sequence including at least one refocusing pulse, a readout gradient pulse that occurs in said sequence temporally after the refocusing pulse, and at least one readout spoiler pulse, and said unoptimized pulse sequence, when used to operate said magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner, causing said scanner to execute a scan, having a scan duration and an associated scanner noise level, in order to acquire said magnetic resonance data with a data resolution;

automatically shorten a pulse duration of said readout gradient pulse while keeping a readout gradient moment constant;

adapt a pulse shape of the readout spoiler pulse, without changing a total spoiler moment, so as to produce an optimally shortened pulse duration of the readout spoiler pulse that occurs when, by adapting the pulse shape of the readout spoiler pulse, a maximum amplitude of the readout spoiler pulse equals the amplitude of the readout gradient pulse and an edge steepness of the readout spoiler pulse is minimized;

transform the unoptimized pulse sequence into an optimized pulse sequence comprising the readout spoiler pulse having said optimally short duration and adapted pulse shape, and said readout gradient pulse with the adapted pulse duration, and make the optimized pulse sequence available at an output of the processor in electronic form in a format configured to use said optimized pulse sequence to operate said magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner; and

operate the magnetic resonance data acquisition scanner to execute a scan with said optimized pulse sequence with a lower noise level than, and the same scan duration and data resolution as in, the scan executed with said unoptimized pulse sequence.