US 12,235,338 B2
Ultrafast MRI system and method
Michael Hutchinson, New York, NY (US)
Filed by Michael Hutchinson, New York, NY (US)
Filed on May 22, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/200,229.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/434,790, filed on Dec. 22, 2022.
Prior Publication US 2024/0210505 A1, Jun. 27, 2024
Int. Cl. G01R 33/44 (2006.01); G01R 33/36 (2006.01); G01R 33/385 (2006.01); G01R 33/483 (2006.01); G01R 33/56 (2006.01); G01R 33/561 (2006.01)
CPC G01R 33/445 (2013.01) [G01R 33/3607 (2013.01); G01R 33/385 (2013.01); G01R 33/4835 (2013.01); G01R 33/5617 (2013.01); G01R 33/5608 (2013.01)] 3 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system configured to acquire MR signals from a multi-slice volume (104) that is in a steady main magnetic field B0 along a z-direction of a Cartesian xyz coordinate system, using spatial sensitivity parameters of small, tuned receiver coils (114), comprising:
a gradient magnetic field generator (108) configured to apply to said volume (104) a gradient field gz along the z-direction and a gradient field gx along the x-direction, these gradients being successively applied to select respective xy slices in a time succession, and to spatially encode columns of voxels within each slice in said time succession;
a radio frequency (RF) pulse generator (106) configured to apply to the volume a time succession of narrow bandwidth 90° RF excitation pulses each tailored to excite a respective slice and each followed by a respective 180° refocusing RF pulse that is tailored to the respective slice to thereby form echoes for spins in the respective slices;
plural rings (114) that surround the volume and are adjacent in the z-direction to form a cylinder, each ring comprising a multitude of said small receiver coils arranged along the circumference of the ring and each having respective xy coordinates;
wherein said coils are configured to acquire echo MR signals from the volume such that signals for a slice are related to slice position relative to said gradient field gz, signals for respective columns of voxels in the slice are related to column position relative to said gradient field gx, and signals for voxel positions in a column are related to xy positions of the coils; and
an image reconstruction facility (120, 122) configured to receive the MR signals and reconstruct slice images.