摘要:
An MRI apparatus with an enhanced thermal control system, the said apparatus comprising: - a static magnetic field generation unit with at least two magnetic poles supported one opposed to the other at a predetermined distance by a yoke and forming between them a gantry for housing an object to be imaged; - at least one heater for heating the said magnetic poles and/or the said magnetic yoke; - one or more temperature sensors measuring the temperature of the at least one pole and/or of the yoke; - a thermal control unit, comprising: - a processing unit, with a memory in which a control software is loaded or loadable, the said control software being executed or executable by the said processing unit; - said processing unit having input ports for receiving the temperature measurement signals from the said one or more temperature sensors; - said processing unit having output ports for feeding driving signals to the said at least one heater; - the said control software comprising the instructions for configuring the said processing unit to generate the said driving signals of the said at least one heater as a function of the signals related to measured temperatures by the said one or more sensors. A method for carrying out thermal control of an MRI apparatus.
摘要:
Method for shear wave elasticity imaging comprising the following steps: a) acquiring B-mode ultrasound images of a target region in a body under examination; b) selecting a region of interest inside the said B-mode image; c) transmitting a shear wave excitation pulse focalized on an excitation region; d) measuring the displacements of a certain number of tracking focal points or depth ranges at different depths positions along each one of a predefined number of laterally staggered tracking lines within the selected region of interest; e) determining a curve representing the displacement of the tissue as a function of time at different spatial locations within the region of interest; f) determining for each said spatial locations in the region of interest the time of arrival of the shear wave at the said spatial location by setting as the time of arrival of the shear wave as a function of the curve representing the displacement of the tissue as a function of time; g) finding the linear functional relation between the time of arrival and the spatial coordinate in the said lateral direction, i.e. in the direction of propagation of the shear wave perpendicular to the direction of the tracking lines, which linear function best approximates the determined time of arrivals at the positions of the tracking lines along the said lateral direction; h) determining the inverse of the velocity of the shear wave in a spatial location as the angular coefficient of the said linear function in a coordinate system representing the time of arrival along the y-coordinate and the position along the lateral direction at which the time of arrival has been recorded on the x-coordinate, i.e. the slope of the straight line representing the said linear function in the said coordinate system, and which method further comprises the following steps: i) step f) is carried out by considering as time of arrivals the time related to each local maxima of the displacement curve at the corresponding spatial location, and j) step g) is carried out by determining the linear function best fitting the said data pairs of local maxima of the displacement and related time of arrival applying a Random Sample Consensus algorithm (RANSAC algorithm).
摘要:
An MRI control system with a user interface which is windows inspired by comprising toolbars at the upper side of the window, providing active labels related to specific examinations or classes of tasks, each label opening specific windows related to the task again provided with toolbars, active buttons and menus. According to a further aspect the control system is configured for providing a dynamic interaction between the records in a database relating to single cases of the same patient or of different patient, which allows to address the record of a database to which a visualized image or data report belongs by simply clicking on the image or report or by visualizing the said image or report.
摘要:
A method for performing retrospective dynamic transmit focusing beamforming for ultrasound signals, the method comprising the steps of: a) transmitting a plurality of transmit beams from an array transducer, each transmit beam being centered at a different position along the array and each transmit beam having a width or an aperture encompassing a plurality of laterally spaced line positions, each transmit beam width or aperture overlapping at least partially at least the width or the aperture of the immediately adjacent transmit beam or of more laterally spaced transmit beams; b) receiving echo signals with the array transducer; c) processing the echo signals received in response to one transmit beam to produce a plurality of receive lines of echo signals at the laterally spaced line positions within the width or the aperture of the transmit beam; d) repeating the receiving step b) and the processing step c) for the additional transmit beams of the plurality of transmitted transmit beams of step a); e) equalizing the phase shift variance among receive lines at a common line position resulting from transmit beams of different transmit beam positions; f) combining echo signals of receive lines from different transmit beams which are spatially related to a common line position to produce image data; and g) producing an image using the image data; and in which the step e) of equalizing the phase shift is carried out concurrently with in the processing step c) and d).
摘要:
Method for quantifying the elasticity of a material by ultrasounds, comprising the generation of one acoustic disturbance ultrasound beam (10) for the first excitation point (1), for generating a shear wave (11), a measurement of the shear wave (11) at a plurality of lines of sight placed in a region of interest (2) at different predetermined distances from the first excitation point (1), the calculation of the speed of the measured shear wave (11) and the assessment, by calculation, of a mean stiffness value of the material in the region of interest (2) on the basis of the measured speed of the shear wave (11). In the acquired image (3) a second excitation point (4) is defined, in such a position that the region of interest (2) is interposed between the first excitation point (1) and the second excitation point (4). The method for the second excitation point (4) is carried out, for calculating the speed of the shear wave (11) for the second excitation point (4), and the assessment by calculation of the mean stiffness value is carried out on the basis of the average between the speed of the shear wave measured for the first excitation point (1) and the speed of the shear wave measured for the second excitation point (4).