JP2014161619A - Magnetic resonance imaging system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To check whether a SAR monitor of an MRI apparatus operates normally before imaging a subject.
A control operation unit 32 in the apparatus acquires a measured SAR value by a SAR monitor 27 without moving a sequencer 6 by a predetermined scan in a state where a phantom is installed in the apparatus, and a SAR related cable. Check for disconnection. Thereafter, with the phantom installed, the actual SAR measurement value of the specified scan is obtained and compared with the SAR limit value to confirm that the SAR monitor 27 has not failed, and the actual SAR value indicates the SAR limit value. If it exceeds, display a message on the display. Further, the SAR monitor 27 confirms that the stop function due to the excess of the limit value operates normally by acquiring the actual measured SAR value of the specified scan while the SAR limit value is intentionally reduced.
[Selection] Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus, and more particularly to a technique for checking in advance whether the SAR monitor operates.

  2. Description of the Related Art Recently, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus having a high static magnetic field strength, for example, 3 Tesla (T: Tesla) has been widely used. Here, when the strength of the static magnetic field is high, the frequency of the high-frequency magnetic field to be applied is also high, and there is a concern about an adverse effect on the subject. Therefore, in order to limit the electromagnetic wave irradiated to the subject, the absorption to the subject is defined as a specific absorption rate (SAR: Specific Absorption Rate), and the sequence performed by the apparatus is restricted so that this SAR is below a predetermined value. ing.

  As a method for measuring this SAR, there is a technique described in Patent Document 1. This is a method for estimating the SAR by measuring the energy irradiated from the RF irradiation coil with a small coil laid in the gantry.

JP-A-5-317287

  However, the instrument of the SAR monitor may fail or there may be an initial failure. Although the above-mentioned document does not particularly deal with such failure or initial failure, SAR is an index used to limit the electromagnetic wave irradiated to the subject. Shooting the SAR as it is must be avoided from the viewpoint of safety.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an MRI apparatus capable of accurately checking in advance whether or not a SAR monitor operates normally, and an operation confirmation method thereof, in response to the above-described problems.

  In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes a transmission system that applies a high-frequency magnetic field to a subject placed in a static magnetic field, and a gradient magnetic field that applies a gradient magnetic field to the subject. Controls the generation system, the reception system that detects the nuclear magnetic resonance signal generated from the subject, the transmission system, the gradient magnetic field generation system, and the reception system, and repeats the measurement of data necessary for image reconstruction. Provided is a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus having a configuration including a control operation unit, a SAR monitor that monitors a SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) of a subject, and a failure detection unit that detects whether or not the SAR monitor has failed. .

  In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a method for confirming the operation of a SAR monitor in a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus, wherein a phantom is installed at a predetermined position of the magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and a prescribed scan is executed. An operation confirmation method for confirming that the SAR monitor has not failed is provided by acquiring the actual SAR value and comparing it with the SAR limit value.

  According to the present invention, there is provided an MRI apparatus and method capable of suitably checking beforehand whether the SAR monitor operates.

It is a block diagram which shows an example of the whole structure of the MRI apparatus based on each Example. It is a block diagram of the structural example of the SAR monitor part based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the operation | movement flowchart of a SAR monitor based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the warning message regarding the operation | movement of a SAR monitor based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the result display regarding the operation | movement of a SAR monitor based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows the other example of the operation | movement flowchart of a SAR monitor based on 1st Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the warning message regarding the operation | movement of a SAR monitor based on 2nd Example. It is the schematic which shows an example of the pulse sequence at the time of the operation | movement confirmation of the SAR monitor based on 2nd Example. It is a figure which shows an example of the result display regarding the operation | movement of a SAR monitor based on 3rd Example.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. First, an example of the overall configuration of the MRI apparatus common to the embodiments will be described with reference to FIG.
The MRI apparatus uses a magnetic resonance phenomenon to obtain a tomographic image of a subject. As shown in the figure, a static magnetic field generating magnetic circuit 1, a gradient magnetic field generating system 2, a transmitting system 3, and a receiving system 4 are used. A signal processing system 5, a sequencer 6, a central processing unit (CPU: Central Processing Unit) 7, and an operation unit 8.

  The sequencer 6 serves as a control means for repeatedly applying a high-frequency magnetic field pulse for causing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to an atomic nucleus constituting the biological tissue of the subject 9 in a predetermined pulse sequence. Under the control of the CPU 7, various commands necessary for collecting tomographic data of the subject 9 are sent to the transmission system 3, the gradient magnetic field generation system 2 and the reception system 4. The operation unit 8 inputs control information for processing performed by the signal processing system 5 and includes a trackball 25 and a keyboard 26. The signal processing system 5, the sequencer 6, the CPU 7, and the operation unit 8 can be configured by a computer system including a processing unit, a storage unit, an input / output unit, etc., such as a personal computer. A hardware configuration such as a dedicated system LSI can be used. Therefore, in the following description, the signal processing system 5, the CPU 7, and the operation unit 8 may be collectively referred to as a control operation unit.

  The static magnetic field generating magnetic circuit 1 generates a uniform static magnetic field around the subject 9 in the direction of the body axis or in a direction perpendicular to the body axis. In a space having a certain extent around the subject 9, A gradient magnetic field coil 10 which is a permanent magnet type, normal conducting type or superconducting type magnetic field generating means is disposed.

  The gradient magnetic field generation system 2 includes a gradient magnetic field coil 10 wound in three axes of X, Y, and Z, which is a coordinate system (stationary coordinate system) of an MRI apparatus, and a gradient magnetic field power source 11 that drives each coil. The gradient magnetic field power supply 11 of each coil is driven in accordance with a command from the sequencer 6 to apply the gradient magnetic fields Gs, Gp, Gf in the three axial directions of X, Y, Z to the subject 9. Yes. At the time of imaging, a slice direction gradient magnetic field pulse (Gs) is applied in a direction orthogonal to the slice plane (imaging cross section) to set a slice plane for the subject 9, orthogonal to the slice plane, and the remaining two directions A phase encode direction gradient magnetic field pulse (Gp) and a frequency encode direction gradient magnetic field pulse (Gf) are applied to the echo signal, and position information in each direction is encoded into the echo signal. Further, from the spatial and temporal information of the eddy current resulting from the application of the gradient magnetic field by the gradient magnetic field power supply 11, the shim coil forming a part of the static magnetic field generating magnetic circuit 1 or the gradient magnetic field generating system 2 is used. Compensation current can be applied.

  The transmission system 3 applies a high-frequency signal in order to cause nuclear magnetic resonance in the atomic nucleus constituting the living tissue of the subject 9 by the high-frequency magnetic field pulse sent from the sequencer 6. The transmission system 3 includes a high-frequency oscillator 12, a modulator 13, a high-frequency amplifier 14, and a high-frequency coil 15 on the transmission side. After the high-frequency pulse output from the high-frequency oscillator 12 is amplified by the high-frequency amplifier 14, the subject 9 The electromagnetic wave high-frequency signal, which is a high-frequency signal, is irradiated on the subject 9 by supplying the high-frequency coil 15 on the transmission side arranged close to the object.

  The receiving system 4 detects an NMR signal that is an echo signal emitted by nuclear magnetic resonance of the nucleus of the living tissue of the subject 9. The receiving system 4 has a high-frequency coil 16, an amplifier 17, and a quadrature detector 18. And an analog / digital (A / D) converter 19, and an NMR signal which is an electromagnetic wave in response to the subject 9 by the electromagnetic wave irradiated from the high-frequency coil 15 on the transmission side is arranged close to the subject 9. The signal is detected by the high frequency coil 16 on the receiving side and sent to the amplifier 17 and the quadrature detector 18. The quadrature detector 18 divides the signal from the amplifier 17 into two systems of signals that are orthogonal at the timing according to the command from the sequencer 6, and inputs each of the signals to the A / D converter 19. The output digital signal of the A / D converter 19 is sent to the signal processing system 5.

  The signal processing system 5 performs image reconstruction calculation and image display using an NMR signal that is an echo signal detected by the reception system 4. The signal processing system 5 includes a CPU 7 that performs processing such as Fourier transform, correction coefficient calculation, image reconstruction, and control of the sequencer 6 for the echo signal, a program that performs image analysis processing and measurement over time, and an invariant used in the execution thereof. ROM (read-only memory) 20 for storing the parameters and the like, the measurement parameters obtained in the previous measurement, the echo signal detected by the receiving system 4, and the image used for setting the region of interest are temporarily stored and the region of interest is set. A RAM (anytime reading / reading memory) 21 for storing parameters and the like, a magneto-optical disk 22 or a magnetic disk 23 serving as a data storage unit for recording image data reconstructed by the CPU 7, and these magneto-optical disks 22 or Display that visualizes image data read from magnetic disk 24 and displays it as a tomographic image Consisting of consisting of display 23.

  The operation unit 8 inputs control information performed by the signal processing system 7 as various control information of the MRI apparatus, and includes a trackball or mouse 25 and a keyboard 26. The operation unit 8 is disposed in the vicinity of the display 23, and the operator interactively controls various processes of the MRI apparatus through the operation unit 8 while looking at the display 23.

Next, as a first embodiment, an embodiment of an MRI apparatus that checks in advance whether the SAR monitor operates will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a portion related to the SAR monitor of the MRI apparatus described above. The MRI apparatus of the present embodiment includes a SAR monitor 27 that monitors a specific absorption rate (SAR). In the configuration of the present embodiment, the weight of the subject, etc., is measured between the control operation unit 32, the high frequency amplifier 14, the sequencer 6 and the SAR monitor 27 described above from the keyboard 26 in the control operation unit 32. A line 28 for setting a limit value obtained from information, a line 29 for acquiring the traveling wave / reflected wave power of the high frequency irradiation coil 15 measured by the power detector 31 of the high frequency amplifier 14, and a line for automatically stopping the sequencer 6 when the SAR limit is exceeded. 30 is connected.

  The SAR monitor 27 in the present embodiment can be realized with a dedicated hardware configuration, but can also be realized as a program process in the CPU 7 constituting the control operation unit 32 described above. In this case, information such as the body weight of the subject input from the keyboard 26 or the like in the control operation unit 32 is input to the CPU 7, and the CPU 7 calculates a limit value by program processing. The traveling wave / reflected wave power measured by the power detector 31 of the high frequency amplifier 14 is input to the CPU 7 of the control operation unit 32 directly or via the A / D converter via the line 29. Further, the CPU 7 of the control operation unit 32 sends a control signal to the sequencer 6 to automatically stop the sequencer 6 when the SAR limit excess is detected by the program processing.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a flowchart for confirming the validity of the actually measured SAR value in the MRI apparatus of the present embodiment. Moreover, it is a figure for demonstrating an example of the failure detection part which detects whether the SAR monitor 27 is out of order.
First, when the power of the MRI apparatus is turned on in step S31, the apparatus automatically executes a high-frequency amplifier communication check in S32. In this high-frequency amplifier communication check S32, if noise data near zero can be measured by acquiring the SAR actual measurement value from the power detector 31 in the high-frequency amplifier 14 without moving the sequencer 6, the line 28 in FIG. It can be confirmed that the line 29 is not disconnected. That is, the range of the SAR actual measurement value is a range near zero, and the failure detection unit performs the actual measurement by the SAR monitor 27 without performing the scan, so that the cable connected to the SAR monitor 27 is disconnected. It can be detected.

  Thereafter, in S33, a phantom is arranged. This is because the failure detection unit detects whether or not the SAR monitor has failed by performing a scan in a state where the phantom is arranged at a predetermined position and performing an actual measurement using the SAR monitor. In S 34, the type of the arranged phantom is input to the SAR monitor 27. Note that the failure detection unit described above can be configured by a program executed by the CPU described above or hardware provided with such a function. It goes without saying that the configuration of the MRI apparatus of FIG. 2 can be configured as a part of the SAR monitor 27, the control operation unit 32, or the like.

  Next, in S35, the SAR monitor 27 reads the SAR standard corresponding to the type of the input phantom. This SAR standard is determined by storing a normal value for each phantom in advance in a memory such as the magnetic disk 24 or by automatically simulating according to the material and size of the arranged phantom. In this state, a prescribed test scan in S36 is performed, and in S37, the power of the traveling wave / reflected wave is measured by the power detector 31 of the high-frequency amplifier 14. Finally, in S38, whether the SAR is within the expected standard is determined by comparison with a threshold value, and the result is displayed on the display 23, thereby measuring the power of the traveling wave / reflected wave in the MRI apparatus. It can be confirmed that the measuring instrument is not broken. That is, in step S38, whether or not the SAR monitor 27 is out of order is detected based on whether or not the actual measurement value by the SAR monitor 27 is within a desired range, and the result is displayed on the display unit. Thereby, the failure detection unit described above can be realized.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a dialog message displayed on the screen 41 of the display 23 when the measured SAR value of the SAR monitor is out of the reference in the MRI apparatus of the present embodiment. Possible causes outside the standard are the wrong type of phantom or the installation location not centered on the magnetic field. In addition, there is a possibility that the system startup process is defective. Therefore, in this example, as shown in FIG. 4, “There is an abnormality in the SAR monitor. Please confirm the installation of the phantom or restart it after restarting.” Is displayed. That is, in this embodiment, when the failure detection unit detects a failure, a warning message is displayed on the screen 41 of the display 23 that is a display unit.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example in which past SAR measurement results are recorded and displayed on the screen 51 of the display 23 in the MRI apparatus of the present embodiment. The samples were arranged on the horizontal axis, and the measured SAR was displayed on the vertical axis. The range between the SAR MAX and the SAR MIN on the vertical axis indicates the normal range. If the SAR measurement result is included in this normal range, it is determined that the SAR monitor is operating normally. The SAR setting values in the figure will be described next.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart for confirming the automatic stop operation when the SAR limit value is exceeded in the SAR monitor 27 of the MRI apparatus of this embodiment. When the power of the MRI apparatus is turned on in S61, it is confirmed in S62 whether only noise data near zero can be acquired by acquiring data from the high-frequency amplifier 14 without automatically moving the sequencer 6. Thereafter, in S63, the phantom is arranged at a predetermined location, and in S64, the adjusting unit, which is not shown in the control operation unit 32, intentionally sets the SAR limit value to a value smaller than the SAR standard set in S35 of FIG. To do. Here, as the value smaller than the SAR standard, for example, a value of about 1% of the SAR standard value is used. The SAR setting value shown in FIG. 5 is a value schematically showing an example thereof.

  In this state, a prescribed scan is performed in S65, and the power of the traveling wave / reflected wave is measured by the high frequency amplifier in S66. In S67, if the limit is exceeded as expected and the automatic stop can be performed, in S68, the fact that the SAR monitor 27 of the MRI apparatus is normal is displayed on the display screen of the display 23, and the process ends without being automatically stopped. In this case, in S69, it is displayed on the display screen of the display 23 that the SAR monitor 27 of the MRI apparatus is abnormal.

  FIG. 7 is an example of a dialog message displayed on the display screen 71 of the display 23 when the limit is not exceeded in this embodiment. This may be due to a failure in the system startup process. For example, by displaying a message such as "There is an error in the SAR monitor. Please re-execute after restarting." It is possible to prevent photographing of the SAR while the monitor is in an abnormal state. Normally, the number of re-executions is set to 2 or 3 times.

  That is, according to the present embodiment, the adjustment unit that adjusts the desired range is provided, and the failure detection unit adjusts the desired range to a low level by this adjustment unit, and the actual measurement value by the SAR monitor 27 indicates the desired range. Based on the fact that it does not exceed, it is possible to detect that the SAR monitor 27 has failed.

  As described above, according to the MRI apparatus of the present embodiment described above, it is possible to surely check that the actual measured SAR value of the SAR monitor is within a desired range before the imaging, and the apparatus has an initial failure or failure. Since taking the SAR in the state never occurs, an extremely safe MRI apparatus can be provided.

  Next, the MRI apparatus with a SAR monitor of the second embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the configuration of the MRI apparatus with a SAR monitor of this embodiment is basically the same as that of the first embodiment, so only the differences from the first embodiment will be described. The present embodiment is an embodiment in which the repetition time TR, that is, the application interval at the time of performing the prescribed scan in S36 in FIG. 3 and S65 in FIG. 6 during the operation of the SAR monitor 27 in FIG.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram schematically showing high-frequency irradiation in case 1, case 2, and case 3 as an example in which only the prescribed scan repetition time TR is changed in the SAR monitor 27. As shown in Case 1 to Case 3, the number of times of high-frequency irradiation 81 per unit time is changed by changing and controlling the repetition time TR and the application interval, so that the limit described in the first embodiment occurs. Since the time can be changed and shortened, the time required for the prior operation check of the SAR monitor can be shortened.

  That is, the control operation unit can change the expected time until the measured value exceeds the limit by adjusting the application interval of the high frequency magnetic field, and the control operation unit further changes the application interval, How the measured value changes can be displayed on the display 23 which is a display unit.

  Next, an MRI apparatus with a SAR monitor of the third embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the configuration of the MRI apparatus with the SAR monitor of this embodiment is basically the same as that of the first and second embodiments, so only the differences from the first embodiment will be described. The present embodiment is an embodiment in which the irradiation power of the high frequency irradiation is changed during the operation of the SAR monitor 27 of FIG.

  That is, in the SAR monitor 27 of the present embodiment, prior to executing the SAR monitor, as shown in FIG. 9, the irradiation power of the high frequency irradiation is changed, and the change of the SAR value at that time is graphed, Displayed on the display screen 91. Thereby, the operator of the SAR monitor 27 of the MRI apparatus of the present embodiment can confirm that the SAR measurement value is changed as expected when the irradiation power is changed at the time of high frequency irradiation. When it does not change according to the value, it can be determined that the SAR monitor 27 is abnormal.

  In other words, the control operation unit 32 adjusts the irradiation power of the high frequency magnetic field to change the expected time until the actual measurement value exceeds the limit, and the control operation unit changes the irradiation power so that the actual measurement value is changed. How it changes is displayed on the display.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to an above-described Example, Various modifications are included. For example, the above-described embodiments have been described in detail for better understanding of the present invention, and are not necessarily limited to those having all the configurations described. Further, a part of the configuration of one embodiment can be replaced with the configuration of another embodiment, and the configuration of another embodiment can be added to the configuration of one embodiment. Further, it is possible to add, delete, and replace other configurations for a part of the configuration of each embodiment.

  Further, the above-described configurations, functions, processing units, and the like have been described with reference to an example of creating a CPU execution program that realizes a part or all of them. Needless to say, it may be realized by hardware.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Static magnetic field generation circuit 2 Gradient magnetic field generation system 3 Transmission system 4 Reception system 5 Signal processing system 6 Sequencer 7 CPU
8 Operation unit 9 Subject 10 Gradient magnetic field coil 11 Gradient magnetic field power supply 12 High frequency oscillator 13 Modulator 14 High frequency amplifier 15 High frequency irradiation coil 16 High frequency reception coil 17 High frequency amplifier 18 Quadrature detector 19 A / D
20 ROM
21 RAM
22 magneto-optical disk 23 display 24 magnetic disk 25 trackball or mouse 26 keyboard 27 SAR monitor 28, 29, 30 line 31 power detector 32 control operation unit 41, 51, 71, 91 display screen 81 high frequency irradiation

Claims (12)

A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus,
A transmission system for applying a high-frequency magnetic field to a subject placed in a static magnetic field;
A gradient magnetic field generating system for applying a gradient magnetic field to the subject;
A receiving system for detecting a nuclear magnetic resonance signal generated from the subject;
A control operation unit that controls the transmission system, the gradient magnetic field generation system, and the reception system, and performs control to repeatedly execute measurement of data necessary for image reconstruction;
A SAR monitor that monitors a SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) of the subject;
A failure detection unit for detecting whether or not the SAR monitor has failed;
With
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 1,
The failure detection unit detects whether the SAR monitor is faulty based on whether or not the actual measurement value by the SAR monitor is within a desired range;
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 2,
The desired range is a range in the vicinity of zero, and the failure detection unit performs an actual measurement using the SAR monitor in a state in which no scan is performed, so that a cable connected to the SAR monitor is not disconnected. Detect
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 1,
With a display,
When the failure detection unit detects a failure, a warning message is displayed on the display unit.
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 2,
The failure detection unit detects whether or not the SAR monitor has failed by performing a scan in a state where the phantom is arranged at a predetermined position and performing an actual measurement using the SAR monitor.
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 1,
A storage unit for storing past measured values by the SAR monitor;
The failure detection unit detects whether the SAR monitor has failed by comparing the stored actual measured value with the actually measured value.
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 2,
An adjustment unit for adjusting the desired range;
The failure detection unit adjusts the desired range to be low by the adjustment unit, and detects that the SAR monitor has failed based on an actual value measured by the SAR monitor not exceeding the desired range. To
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 6,
The control operation unit is
By adjusting the application interval or irradiation power of the high-frequency magnetic field, the expected time until the measured value exceeds the limit is changed,
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus according to claim 8,
The control operation unit includes a display unit that displays how the actual measurement value is changed by changing the application interval or irradiation power.
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus. A method for confirming the operation of a SAR monitor in a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus,
A phantom is installed at a predetermined position of the magnetic resonance imaging apparatus, a prescribed scan is performed to obtain an actual SAR value, and compared with the SAR limit value, to confirm that the SAR monitor is not broken,
The operation confirmation method characterized by this. A method for confirming the operation of the SAR monitor according to claim 10,
Confirming the disconnection of the cable connected to the SAR monitor by acquiring the measured SAR value without moving the sequencer;
The operation confirmation method characterized by this. It is the operation check method of the AR monitor according to claim 10,
In a state where a phantom is installed and the SAR limit value is reduced, an actual stop SAR value of the specified scan is obtained, thereby confirming that the automatic sequencer stop operation due to excess limit operates.
The operation confirmation method characterized by this.

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