阅读说明：本技术 数据采集装置、方法及磁共振成像装置 (Data acquisition device and method and magnetic resonance imaging device ) 是由 张琼 于 2020-06-11 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明实施例中公开了一种数据采集装置、方法及磁共振成像装置。其中,装置包括：压脂脉冲施加模块,用于按照一设定间隔向成像区域施加一压脂脉冲,所述压脂脉冲能够将初始脂肪信号压制为负值,并使得两个压脂脉冲之间采集的回波数据中的中间回波数据对应的脂肪信号位于[0,a]之内,a为预先设定的接近于0的阈值；和激励采集模块,用于在每个压脂脉冲后施加射频脉冲串及一系列相位编码梯度并采集得到对应的回波数据,将所述回波数据采用线性填充方式填充到一k空间中。本发明实施例中的技术方案能够在尽量不增加压脂脉冲的情况下提高图像对比度。(The embodiment of the invention discloses a data acquisition device, a data acquisition method and a magnetic resonance imaging device. Wherein, the device includes: the fat pressing pulse applying module is used for applying a fat pressing pulse to the imaging area according to a set interval, the fat pressing pulse can press an initial fat signal into a negative value, and enables a fat signal corresponding to middle echo data in echo data acquired between two fat pressing pulses to be located in [0, a ], wherein a is a preset threshold value close to 0; and the excitation acquisition module is used for applying a radio frequency pulse train and a series of phase coding gradients after each fat pressing pulse, acquiring corresponding echo data and filling the echo data into a k space in a linear filling mode. The technical scheme in the embodiment of the invention can improve the image contrast under the condition of not increasing the pressure fat pulse as much as possible.)

1. A data acquisition device, comprising:

the fat pressing pulse applying module (310) is used for applying a fat pressing pulse to the imaging area according to a set interval, the fat pressing pulse can press an initial fat signal into a negative value, and a fat signal corresponding to middle echo data in echo data acquired between two fat pressing pulses is positioned in [0, a ], wherein a is a preset threshold value close to 0; and

and the excitation acquisition module (320) is used for applying a radio frequency pulse train and a series of phase encoding gradients after each fat pressing pulse, acquiring corresponding echo data and filling the echo data into a k space in a linear filling mode.

2. The data acquisition device of claim 1, further comprising: the fat pressing pulse determining module (330) is used for determining the turning angle of the fat pressing pulse according to the principle that a fat signal corresponding to middle echo data in echo data acquired between two fat pressing pulses is located in [0, a ]; and a fat pressing pulse applying module (310) applies fat pressing pulses with the turnover angle to an imaging area according to the set interval.

3. The data acquisition device according to claim 2, wherein the fat pressing pulse determining module (330) reduces the length of the echo chain if the condition that the fat signal corresponding to the intermediate echo data is within [0, a ] cannot be satisfied when calculating the flip angle value of the fat pressing pulse for the echo within the standard echo chain length, divides the echo within the standard echo chain length into at least two echo groups in a manner of sequentially and alternately extracting the group members, and calculates the flip angle value of the fat pressing pulse for each echo group.

4. The data acquisition device of claim 3, wherein the fat pulse determination module (330) comprises:

the first processing unit (331) is used for setting the turnover angle of the fat pressing pulse to be 180 degrees and calculating fat signals in all echoes in one echo chain length;

a judging unit (332) for judging the echo signal M with the lowest fat signal_ninEcho number M corresponding to k-space center_cMaking a comparison if M_c≤M_ninIf so, sending the first processing notice to a second processing unit (333); if M is_c>M_ninIf yes, sending a second processing notice to a third processing unit (334);

the second processing unit (333) is used for reducing the flip angle of the fat pressing pulse according to the first processing notice at set intervals and calculating the fat signals in all the echoes in one echo chain length until M_cThe fat signal is minimum or close to the minimum value, and the turning angle of the corresponding fat pressing pulse is the final turning angle;

the third processing unit (334) is configured to reduce the echo chain length according to the second processing notification, divide the echoes within the standard echo chain length into at least two echo groups in a manner of sequentially and alternately extracting group members, and instruct the first processing unit (331) to perform, based on the reduced echo chain length, an operation of setting the flip angle of the fat push pulse to 180 degrees and calculating fat signals in all echoes in one fat push echo chain length M.

5. The data acquisition device according to claim 4, wherein the calculating the fat signals in all echoes of one echo train length is: calculating fat signals in all echoes in one echo chain length by adopting the following formula;

wherein i is 2,3, … …, m; beta is the flip angle of the grease pressing pulse, theta is the excitation angle of the excitation pulse,is the longitudinal magnetization vector of the fat at the nth moment,is composed ofObtained after the overturning of the overturning angle beta,is the longitudinal magnetization vector of the fat at the ith radio frequency pulse,is composed ofThe excitation angle theta is turned over; t1 is the longitudinal relaxation time of fat, T2 is the transverse relaxation time of fat, T1 is the time interval between the fat pressing pulse and the first RF pulse, T2 is the echo time, T3 is the echo interval; m0 is the magnetization vector of the thermal equilibrium state,is the transverse magnetization vector of fat at the ith echo data, and m is the echo chain lengthAnd (4) degree.

6. A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus comprising a data acquisition apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5.

7. A method of data acquisition, comprising:

applying a fat pressing pulse to the imaging region at a set interval, the fat pressing pulse being capable of pressing the initial fat signal to a negative value and causing a fat signal corresponding to intermediate echo data in echo data acquired between two fat pressing pulses to be within [0, a ], a being a preset threshold value close to 0 (S84);

after each liposuction pulse, a radio frequency pulse train and a series of phase encoding gradients are applied, corresponding echo data are acquired, and the echo data are filled into a k space in a linear filling mode (S86).

8. The data acquisition method as set forth in claim 7, wherein before applying a fat pressing pulse (S84) to the imaging region at a set interval, further comprising: determining a flip angle of the pressure fat pulse according to a principle that a fat signal corresponding to intermediate echo data in echo data acquired between the two pressure fat pulses is located within [0, a ] (S82);

applying a liposuction pulse to the imaging region at a set interval (S84) is: the fat pressing pulse having the flip angle is applied to the imaging region at a set interval (S84).

9. The data acquisition method according to claim 8, wherein the determining the flip angle of the pressure fat pulse on the basis of the principle that the fat signal corresponding to the intermediate echo data in the echo data acquired between the two pressure fat pulses is within [0, a ] comprises:

setting the turnover angle of the fat pressing pulse to be 180 degrees, and calculating fat signals in all echoes in the length M of one fat pressing echo chain (S92);

in k-spaceEcho number M corresponding to heart_cLess than or equal to the echo signal M with the lowest fat signal_ninWhen the amplitude of the echo is larger than the preset value, the turning angle of the fat pressing pulse is reduced according to the set interval, and fat signals in all echoes in one echo chain length are calculated until M_cThe fat signal is minimum or close enough to the minimum value, and the flip angle of the corresponding fat pressing pulse is the final flip angle (S96);

echo number M corresponding to k-space center_cEcho signal M higher than lowest fat signal_ninWhen the standard echo length M is smaller than the standard echo length M_ETLThe echoes in the group are divided into at least two echo groups in a mode of sequentially and alternately extracting the group members (S98), and then the step of setting the flip angle of the pressure fat pulse to be 180 degrees and calculating the fat signals in all the echoes in one pressure fat echo chain length M is returned to (S92).

10. The data acquisition device according to claim 9, wherein the calculating the fat signals in all echoes of one echo train length is: calculating fat signals in all echoes in one echo chain length by adopting the following formula;

wherein i is 2,3, … …, m; beta is the flip angle of the grease pressing pulse, theta is the excitation angle of the excitation pulse,is the longitudinal magnetization vector of the fat at the nth moment,is composed ofObtained after the overturning of the overturning angle beta,is the longitudinal magnetization vector of the fat at the ith radio frequency pulse,is composed ofThe excitation angle theta is turned over; t1 is the longitudinal relaxation time of fat, T2 is the transverse relaxation time of fat, T1 is the time interval between the fat pressing pulse and the first RF pulse, T2 is the echo time, T3 is the echo interval; m0 is the magnetization vector of the thermal equilibrium state,is the transverse magnetization vector of the fat at the ith echo data, and m is the echo train length.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of magnetic resonance imaging, in particular to a data acquisition device and method and a magnetic resonance imaging device.

Background

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a technique of performing imaging using a Magnetic resonance phenomenon. The principles of magnetic resonance imaging mainly include: the atomic nucleus containing odd number of protons, such as hydrogen atomic nucleus widely existing in human body, has a spin motion as if it is a small magnet, and the spin axes of the small magnets are not regular, if an external magnetic field is applied, the small magnets will be rearranged according to the magnetic lines of the external magnetic field, specifically, arranged in two directions parallel or anti-parallel to the magnetic lines of the external magnetic field, the direction parallel to the magnetic lines of the external magnetic field is called positive longitudinal axis, the direction anti-parallel to the magnetic lines of the external magnetic field is called negative longitudinal axis, the atomic nucleus only has a longitudinal magnetization component, and the longitudinal magnetization component has both direction and amplitude. The magnetic resonance phenomenon is that nuclei in an external magnetic field are excited by Radio Frequency (RF) pulses of a specific Frequency, so that the spin axes of the nuclei deviate from the positive longitudinal axis or the negative longitudinal axis to generate resonance. After the spin axes of the excited nuclei are offset from the positive or negative longitudinal axis, the nuclei have a transverse magnetization component.

After the emission of the radio frequency pulse is stopped, the excited atomic nucleus emits an echo signal, absorbed energy is released gradually in the form of electromagnetic waves, the phase and the energy level of the electromagnetic waves are restored to the state before the excitation, and the image can be reconstructed by further processing the echo signal emitted by the atomic nucleus through space coding and the like. The above-mentioned process of recovering excited nuclei to a pre-excited state is called a relaxation process, and the time required for recovering to an equilibrium state is called a relaxation time.

Because the molecular environment of the hydrogen atomic nucleus in the fat inside the human body is different from that of the hydrogen atomic nucleus in the water, when the same radio-frequency pulse is used for excitation, the resonance frequencies of the hydrogen atomic nucleus and the water are different, and the relaxation time is also different. The signals are acquired at different echo times, the adipose tissue and water exhibit different phases and signal strengths. In order to obtain a clear image with a good image contrast, various fat suppression methods have been proposed in which a signal from fat in a subject (fat signal for short) is suppressed as an unnecessary signal.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of one of the echo data acquisitions based on fast fat suppression. As shown in fig. 1, in the first layer, a fat-pressing pulse 101 for suppressing the fat signal is applied first, and then a series of excitation pulses 102, i.e., RF pulse trains, are applied before the fat signal is suppressed and completely restored, in which only 4 excitation pulses are shown for easy understanding, and in practical applications, the number of the excitation pulses can be determined according to practical situations; the second layer is a damage gradient 103; the third layer is echo data 104, wherein the number of the echo data is consistent with the number of the excitation pulses, and each echo data is a read-out collected echo signal; the fourth layer is the fat signal 105 whose vertical axis is the fat signal amplitude FSA, and it can be seen that after each application of a fat pulse, the fat signal is suppressed to zero, and then the fat signal suppressed to zero is slowly restored. The degree of recovery of the fat signal, i.e., the magnitude of the fat signal, depends on the elapsed time from the application of the pressure pulse.

However, the fat signal is slowly recovered after being suppressed, but applying more fat pressing pulses means more time consumption, so that the problem of how to balance the scanning time and the image contrast is always faced at present.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above, embodiments of the present invention provide a data acquisition apparatus and method, and a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus for improving image contrast without increasing the pressure lipid pulse as much as possible.

The data acquisition device provided in the embodiment of the invention comprises: the fat pressing pulse applying module is used for applying a fat pressing pulse to the imaging area according to a set interval, the fat pressing pulse can press an initial fat signal into a negative value, and enables a fat signal corresponding to middle echo data in echo data acquired between two fat pressing pulses to be located in [0, a ], wherein a is a preset threshold value close to 0; and the excitation acquisition module is used for applying a radio frequency pulse train and a series of phase coding gradients after each fat pressing pulse, acquiring corresponding echo data and filling the echo data into a k space in a linear filling mode.

In one embodiment, further comprising: the fat pressing pulse determining module is used for determining the turning angle of the fat pressing pulse according to the principle that a fat signal corresponding to middle echo data in echo data acquired between two fat pressing pulses is located in [0, a ]; and the grease pressing pulse applying module applies grease pressing pulses with the overturning angle to the imaging area according to the set interval.

In one embodiment, when the flip angle value of the fat pressing pulse is calculated for the echo within the standard echo chain length, if the condition that the fat signal corresponding to the intermediate echo data is within [0, a ] cannot be satisfied, the fat pressing pulse determining module reduces the echo chain length, divides the echo within the standard echo chain length into at least two echo groups in a manner of sequentially and alternately extracting group members, and calculates the flip angle value of the fat pressing pulse for each echo group.

In one embodiment, the fat pulse determination module comprises: the first processing unit is used for setting the turnover angle of the fat pressing pulse to be 180 degrees and calculating fat signals in all echoes in one echo chain length; a judging unit for judging the echo signal M with the lowest fat signal_ninEcho number M corresponding to k-space center_cMaking a comparison if M_c≤M_ninIf so, sending a first processing notice to a second processing unit; if M is_c>M_ninIf yes, sending a second processing notice to a third processing unit; the second processing unit is used for reducing the turnover angle of the fat pressing pulse according to the first processing notice at set intervals and calculating the fat signals in all echoes in one echo chain length until M_cThe fat signal at the position is minimum or close to the minimum value enough, and the turning angle of the corresponding fat pressing pulse is the final turning angle; and the third processing unit reduces the echo chain length according to the second processing notification, divides the echoes in the standard echo chain length into at least two echo groups in a mode of sequentially and alternately extracting group members, and instructs the first processing unit to execute the operation of setting the flip angle of the fat pressing pulse to be 180 degrees and calculating the fat signals in all the echoes in one fat pressing echo chain length M based on the reduced echo chain length.

In one embodiment, the calculating the fat signals in all echoes in one echo train length is: calculating fat signals in all echoes in one echo chain length by adopting the following formula;

wherein i is 2,3, … …, m; beta is the flip angle of the grease pressing pulse, theta is the excitation angle of the excitation pulse,is the longitudinal magnetization vector of the fat at the nth moment,is composed ofObtained after the overturning of the overturning angle beta,is the longitudinal magnetization vector of the fat at the ith radio frequency pulse,is composed ofThe excitation angle theta is turned over; t1 is the longitudinal relaxation time of fat, T2 is the transverse relaxation time of fat, T1 is the time interval between the fat-pressing pulse and the first RF pulse, T2 is echo time, t3 is echo interval; m0 is the magnetization vector of the thermal equilibrium state,the transverse magnetization vector of fat at the ith echo data is shown, and m is the echo chain length.

The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus provided in the embodiment of the present invention includes the data acquisition apparatus described in any of the above embodiments.

The data acquisition method provided in the embodiment of the invention comprises the following steps: applying a fat pressing pulse to an imaging region according to a set interval, wherein the fat pressing pulse can press an initial fat signal into a negative value, and enables a fat signal corresponding to middle echo data in echo data acquired between two fat pressing pulses to be located in [0, a ], wherein a is a preset threshold value close to 0; and applying a radio frequency pulse train and a series of phase encoding gradients after each fat pressing pulse, acquiring corresponding echo data, and filling the echo data into a k space in a linear filling mode.

In one embodiment, before applying a fat pressing pulse to the imaging region at a set interval, the method further comprises: determining the turnover angle of the fat pressing pulse according to the principle that a fat signal corresponding to middle echo data in echo data acquired between two fat pressing pulses is located in [0, a ]; the method for applying the fat pressing pulse to the imaging area according to the set interval comprises the following steps: and applying the fat pressing pulse with the overturning angle to the imaging area according to a set interval.

In one embodiment, the fat signal corresponding to the intermediate echo data in the echo data acquired between the two fat compression pulses is located at [0, a]The principle of determining the flip angle of the fat pressing pulse comprises the following steps: setting the turning angle of the fat pressing pulse to be 180 degrees, and calculating fat signals in all echoes in the length M of one fat pressing echo chain; echo number M corresponding to k space center_cLess than or equal to the echo signal M with the lowest fat signal_ninWhen the magnitude of the pressure pulse is larger than the predetermined value, the turning angle of the pressure pulse is decreased at a predetermined interval, and a loop is calculatedFat signals in all echoes up to M in the wave chain length_cThe fat signal at the position is minimum or close to the minimum value, and the turning angle of the corresponding fat pressing pulse is the final turning angle; echo number M corresponding to k-space center_cEcho signal M higher than lowest fat signal_ninWhen the standard echo length M is smaller than the standard echo length M_ETLAnd dividing the echoes in the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus into at least two echo groups according to a mode of sequentially and alternately extracting group members, then returning to execute the steps of setting the turnover angle of the fat pressing pulse to be 180 degrees and calculating fat signals in all the echoes in the length M of one fat pressing echo wave chain.

In one embodiment, the calculating the fat signals in all echoes in one echo train length is: calculating fat signals in all echoes in one echo chain length by adopting the following formula;

wherein i is 2,3, … …, m; beta is the flip angle of the grease pressing pulse, theta is the excitation angle of the excitation pulse,is the nth timeThe longitudinal magnetization vector of the fat,is composed ofObtained after the overturning of the overturning angle beta,is the longitudinal magnetization vector of the fat at the ith radio frequency pulse,is composed ofThe excitation angle theta is turned over; t1 is the longitudinal relaxation time of fat, T2 is the transverse relaxation time of fat, T1 is the time interval between the fat pressing pulse and the first RF pulse, T2 is the echo time, T3 is the echo interval; m0 is the magnetization vector of the thermal equilibrium state,the transverse magnetization vector of fat at the ith echo data is shown, and m is the echo chain length.

As can be seen from the above solution, since the embodiment of the present invention applies a fat compression pulse that makes the fat signal at the time of acquiring the intermediate echo data 0 or close to 0, that is, the fat compression pulse first suppresses the fat signal to a set negative value rather than a zero value, and then applies the RF pulse train during the period when the fat signal is suppressed and restored to a set positive value, when the linear filling of k-space is performed, the echo data with the low L of the fat signal is located right in the central region of k-space, and compared to the solution in which the fat signal based on the existing fat compression pulse is increased from the 0 value to the first positive value, the solution in which the fat signal based on the new fat compression pulse is increased from the negative value to the second positive value is better in fat compression effect because the fat signal is mainly located near the 0 value.

In addition, when the flip angle of the pressure fat pulse is calculated for the echo in the normal Echo Train Length (ETL), the echo train length is reduced in a case where the condition that the fat signal corresponding to the intermediate echo data is 0 or approximately 0 cannot be satisfied, and the echo in the normal ETL is divided into at least two echo groups so that the group members are sequentially extracted alternately at equal intervals, whereby the flip angle of the pressure fat pulse applied to each echo group can be obtained.

Drawings

The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention relates upon consideration of the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of echo data acquisition based on fast fat suppression.

Fig. 2A to 2C show the distribution of echo signals in different k-space filling modes.

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a data acquisition device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of echo data acquisition based on novel fat suppression in an example of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of calculating the flip angle of a fat pulse in one example of the present invention.

Fig. 6A and 6B are schematic diagrams illustrating changes in fat signals and amplitudes after applying a fat pressing pulse when the flip angle is changed from 90 degrees to 180 degrees in an example of the present invention. Fig. 6A is a schematic diagram of a fat signal, and fig. 6B is a schematic diagram of a change in amplitude of the fat signal obtained by modulo the fat signal shown in fig. 6A.

Fig. 7A-7C are schematic diagrams of the linear filling of k-space from bottom to top according to an example of the present invention.

Fig. 8 is an exemplary flowchart of a data acquisition method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 9 is a schematic flow chart of determining the flip angle of the fat pressing pulse in the embodiment of the present invention.

Wherein the reference numbers are as follows:

Detailed Description

MRI imaging includes images of various cross sections in a desired direction. k-space is the data space of each cross section, i.e. k-space data represents a set of raw data that can form an image. For example, after acquiring echo data of k-space by using a three-dimensional fast gradient echo sequence, the echo data is filled into a phase encoding k-space. By then performing a fourier transform on the k-space data, a desired image can be obtained.

In the embodiment of the present invention, considering that the current k-space filling mainly adopts three filling manners of fig. 2A to 2C, wherein fig. 2A and 2B are linear filling, and fig. 2C is pseudo-intermediate-order filling. As shown in fig. 2A to 2C, the dark region is echo data with a low fat signal L, and the light region is echo data with a high fat signal H. The abscissa is the phase encoding PE in the phase encoding direction and the ordinate is the phase encoding in the layer selection direction. It can be seen that fig. 2A is a filling sequence from bottom to top, fig. 2B is a filling sequence from left to right, and fig. 2C is a filling sequence from the center to the top and bottom. For the filling order in fig. 2A, echo data with the lowest fat signal is located below k-space, for the filling order in fig. 2B, echo data with the lowest fat signal is located on the left side of k-space, and for the filling order in fig. 2C, echo data with the lowest fat signal is located on the top-bottom center bar of k-space.

The inventors of the present invention have found by comparison that the reconstructed magnetic resonance images corresponding to different filling directions have different image contrast. The image contrast of the reconstructed magnetic resonance image corresponding to the filling order of fig. 2C is superior to the linear filling method of fig. 2A and 2B. However, the filling sequence from the center to the upper and lower sides is more complicated than the linear filling sequence. To this end, the embodiment of the invention proposes a novel echo data acquisition scheme, namely, applying a fat pressing pulse for suppressing the fat signal to a set negative value instead of a zero value, then applying an RF pulse string during the period when the fat signal is suppressed and restored to a set positive value, the size of the fat pressing pulse is calculated based on the criterion that the fat signal is zero or close to zero when the echo data corresponding to the RF pulse in the middle of the RF pulse train is acquired, thus, when linear k-space filling is performed, the echo data with low fat signals L are located right in the central region of k-space, and compared with the scheme that the fat signal based on the existing fat pressing pulse is increased from the 0 value to the first positive value, the scheme that the fat signal based on the novel fat pressing pulse is increased from the negative value to the second positive value has better fat pressing effect because the fat signal is mainly positioned near the 0 value.

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, the present invention is further described in detail by referring to the following examples.

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a data acquisition device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the solid line portion in fig. 3, the apparatus may include: a compressive fat pulse application module 310 and an excitation acquisition module 320.

The fat pressing pulse applying module 310 is configured to apply a fat pressing pulse to the imaging region at a set interval, where the fat pressing pulse can suppress the initial fat signal to a negative value and make the fat signal corresponding to the middle echo data in the echo data acquired between two fat pressing pulses be 0 or approximately 0, for example, make the fat signal corresponding to the middle echo data in the echo data acquired between two fat pressing pulses be within [0, a ], and a is a preset threshold value close to 0, such as 0.1.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of echo data acquisition based on novel fat suppression in an example of the present invention. In this example, a case where 5 RF pulses are included in the RF pulse train is exemplified. As shown in fig. 4, in the fat signal layer 107 of the fourth layer, it can be seen that after each application of the pressurized fat pulse 106, the fat signal 107 is suppressed to a negative value, and then the fat signal 107 suppressed to the negative value starts to recover slowly, and when the corresponding middle echo data 3 is acquired, the fat signal is 0 or approximately 0, and then when the last echo data 5 is acquired, the fat signal becomes a positive value.

In specific calculation, in order to obtain an effect that a fat signal corresponding to the intermediate echo data acquired after each fat compression pulse is 0 or approximately 0, the turning angle value of the fat compression pulse can be calculated by using the following formulas (1) to (5) in combination with the graph shown in fig. 5:

wherein i is 2,3, … …, m; beta is the flip angle of the grease pressing pulse, theta is the excitation angle of the excitation pulse,is the longitudinal magnetization vector of the fat at the nth moment,is composed ofObtained after the overturning of the overturning angle beta,for the longitudinal magnetization vector of the fat at the ith radio frequency pulse，Is composed ofThe excitation angle theta is turned over; t1 is the longitudinal relaxation time of fat, T2 is the transverse relaxation time of fat, T1 is the time interval between the fat pressing pulse and the first RF pulse, T2 is the echo time, defined as the time interval from the excitation pulse to the acquisition of the central point of k-space, and T3 is the echo interval, defined as the time interval between two echoes; m0 is the magnetization vector in the thermal equilibrium state, and M is the echo train length.

Since the transverse magnetization vector of fat is proportional to the fat signal, the transverse magnetization vector of fat is proportional to the fat signalAnd then, the corresponding beta value is the determined numerical value of the turnover angle of the fat pressing pulse.

In other embodiments, the data acquisition apparatus may also include a fat pulse determining module 330 for determining the flip angle of the fat pulse according to the above procedure, i.e. the fat signal corresponding to the middle echo data in the echo data acquired between two fat pulses is 0 or approximately 0, as shown in the dotted line in fig. 3. Accordingly, the fat pressing pulse applying module 310 is configured to apply a fat pressing pulse having the flip angle to the imaging region at a first set interval.

In this example, the longitudinal magnetization of fat is from the initial magnetization in the nth fat suppression cycleStarting, in the (n + 1) th fat suppression cycle, the longitudinal magnetization of fat starts from the result of the longitudinal magnetization of fat in the (n + 1) th fat suppression cycle, that is, the following formula (4) is satisfied:

fat signal oscillations occur only in the first few Echo Train Lengths (ETL) and then go into periodic repetition. That is, the fat signals enter Steady State Incoherent (SSI) motion between ETLs. Neglecting the first few tens of ETLs, one can assume that the fat signal goes into steady state in each ETL, then there are:

fig. 6A and 6B are graphs showing changes in fat signal and amplitude after applying a fat pressing pulse when the flip angle is changed from 90 degrees to 180 degrees in one example. Fig. 6A is a schematic diagram of a fat signal S, and fig. 6B is a schematic diagram of a change of a fat signal amplitude a obtained by performing a modulo operation on the fat signal shown in fig. 6A. The abscissa in fig. 6A and fig. 6B is the number of echoes within one echo train length, and the ordinate in fig. 6A is the value of the fat signal S, it can be seen that the fat-pressing effect is different for different flip angles.

The excitation acquisition module 320 is configured to apply an RF pulse train and a series of phase encoding gradients after each liposuction pulse and acquire corresponding echo data, and fill the echo data into a k space in a linear filling manner.

In one embodiment of the invention, the determination module 330 determines if the fat pulse is directed to an echo M within a normal Echo Train Length (ETL)_ETLWhen the flip angle value of the fat pressing pulse is calculated, if the condition that the fat signal corresponding to the intermediate echo data is 0 or approximately 0 cannot be satisfied, the echo chain length can be reduced. The echo chain length can be shortened according to the following formula:

it can be seen that, since the echo train length is reduced by multiple, in order to match with the existing k space and to enable the middle echo data in the reduced echo train length to be located at the center position of the k space, the echoes in the normal ETL may be divided into corresponding echo groups, that is, at least two echo groups, generally two echo groups or three echo groups, in a manner of alternately extracting group members at equal intervals according to the reduction multiple of the echo train length. For example, if n is 2 and the original echo train length is 10, when the echoes having the echo train length of 10 are divided into two groups, one echo group may be composed of the first, third, fifth, seventh and ninth echoes, and the other echo group may be composed of the second, fourth, sixth, eighth and tenth echoes. For another example, if n is 3 and the echo train length is 15, when the echoes with the echo train length of 15 are divided into three groups, the first echo group may be composed of the first, fourth, seventh, tenth and thirteenth echoes, the second echo group may be composed of the second, fifth, eighth, eleventh and fourteenth echoes, and the third echo group may be composed of the third, sixth, ninth, twelfth and fifteenth echoes. Then, for each echo group, the value of the flip angle of the pressure pulse applied to the front of the echo group is calculated so that the fat signal of the intermediate echo data among the echo data corresponding to the echo group is 0 or approximately 0.

Wherein the applied phase encoding gradient is different for different echoes.

Fig. 7A shows a schematic diagram of a linear filling of k-space from bottom to top in one example.

In addition, for the case of dividing the echo in one ETL into at least two echo groups, for example, still taking the case of dividing the echo with the ETL of 10 into two groups as an example, the echo data acquired for the echo group consisting of the second, fourth, sixth, eighth and tenth echoes are the second, fourth, sixth, eighth and tenth echo data, the schematic diagram after filling in the k space may be as shown in fig. 7B, the schematic diagram after filling in the k space may be the first, third, fifth, seventh and ninth echoes, and the schematic diagram after filling in the k space may be as shown in fig. 7C. That is, by sequentially performing the filling as shown in fig. 7B and 7C, the k-space as shown in fig. 7A can be obtained.

In a specific implementation, the fat pressing pulse determining module 330 may include: a first processing unit 331, a judgment unit 332, a second processing unit 333, and a third processing unit 334.

The first processing unit 331 is configured to set the flip angle of the fat pressing pulse to 180 degrees, calculate fat signals in all echoes in one echo chain length M according to formulas (1) to (5), and record an echo signal with the lowest fat signal as M_nin(R₀) And marking the echo number corresponding to the k space center as M_c。

The judgment unit 332 is used for judging M_cAnd M_ninIf M is large or small_c≤M_ninThen a first processing notification is sent to the second processing unit 333; if M is_c>M_ninThen a second process notification is sent to the third processing unit 334.

The second processing unit 333 is configured to reduce the flip angle of the fat pressing pulse at set intervals according to the first processing notification, and calculate the fat signals in all echoes up to M in one echo train length_cThe fat signal is minimum or close enough to the minimum value, and the flip angle of the corresponding fat pressing pulse is the final flip angle.

The third processing unit 334 is configured to reduce the echo chain length according to the second processing notification, obtain the reduced echo chain length M according to the above equation (8), and instruct the first processing unit 331 to perform an operation of setting the flip angle of the fat push pulse to 180 degrees and calculating the fat signals in all echoes in one fat push echo chain length M based on the reduced echo chain length.

The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus in the embodiment of the present invention may include the data acquisition apparatus shown in fig. 3, and may further include other necessary modules on the basis of fig. 3, for example, an image reconstruction module for reconstructing a magnetic resonance image using the data in the k-space, and the like.

The device embodiment in the embodiment of the present invention is described in detail above, and the method embodiment in the embodiment of the present invention is described in detail below. For details that are not disclosed in the embodiments of the method of the present invention, reference may be made to the corresponding description in the embodiments of the apparatus of the present invention, and details are not repeated here.

Fig. 8 is an exemplary flowchart of a data acquisition method according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the solid line portion in fig. 8, the method may include:

step S84, a fat pressing pulse capable of pressing the initial fat signal to a negative value and making the fat signal corresponding to the intermediate echo data in the echo data acquired between two fat pressing pulses be 0 or approximately 0 is applied to the imaging region at a set interval, for example, the fat signal corresponding to the intermediate echo data in the echo data acquired between two fat pressing pulses is located within [0, a ], and a is a preset threshold value close to 0, such as 0.1.

And step S86, applying a radio frequency pulse train and a series of phase encoding gradients after each fat pressing pulse, acquiring corresponding echo data, and filling the echo data into a k space in a linear filling mode.

In another embodiment, as shown in the dotted line portion in fig. 7, the method further includes a step S82 of determining the flip angle of the pressure fat pulse according to the principle that the fat signal corresponding to the middle echo data in the echo data acquired between the two pressure fat pulses is 0 or approximately 0. Accordingly, a fat pressing pulse having the flip angle is applied to the imaging region at first set intervals in step S84.

In an example of the present invention, when the step S82 is implemented specifically, the process of determining the flip angle of the fat pressing pulse may be as shown in fig. 9, and includes the following steps:

step S92, the flip angle of the fat pressing pulse is set to 180 degrees, and the fat signals in all the echoes in one fat pressing echo chain length M are calculated.

Step S94, comparing the echo number M corresponding to the k space center_cEcho signal M lowest in fat signal_ninIf M is large or small_c≤M_ninThen go to step S96; otherwise, executing the stepS98, i.e. M_c>M_ninThen, step S98 is executed.

In this embodiment, the echo signal with the lowest fat signal is recorded as M_nin(R₀) And marking the echo number corresponding to the k space center as M_c。

Step S96, the flip angle of the fat pressing pulse is reduced according to the set interval, and the fat signals in all the echoes in one echo chain length are calculated until M_cThe fat signal is minimum or close enough to the minimum value, and the flip angle of the corresponding fat pressing pulse is the final flip angle.

Step S98, reducing the echo chain length according to the above equation (8)Obtaining the reduced echo chain length M, and calculating the standard echo chain length M_ETLThe echoes in the group are divided into at least two echo groups in such a manner that the group members are alternately extracted in order, and then the process returns to step S92.

In step S98, the echo train length is reduced by multiple, so that in order to match the existing k-space and make the middle echo data in the echo data within the reduced echo train length located at the center position of the k-space, the echoes within the normal ETL can be divided into corresponding echo groups, that is, at least two echo groups, usually two echo groups or three echo groups, according to the reduction multiple of the echo train length, in a manner of sequentially and alternately extracting group members at equal intervals. For example, if n is 2 and the original echo train length is 10, when the echoes having the echo train length of 10 are divided into two groups, one echo group may be composed of the first, third, fifth, seventh and ninth echoes, and the other echo group may be composed of the second, fourth, sixth, eighth and tenth echoes. For another example, if n is 3 and the echo train length is 15, when the echoes with the echo train length of 15 are divided into three groups, the first echo group may be composed of the first, fourth, seventh, tenth and thirteenth echoes, the second echo group may be composed of the second, fifth, eighth, eleventh and fourteenth echoes, and the third echo group may be composed of the third, sixth, ninth, twelfth and fifteenth echoes. Then, for each echo group, the flip angle value of the pressure fat pulse applied to the front of the echo group is calculated so that the fat signal of the intermediate echo data among the echo data corresponding to the echo group is 0 or approximately 0.

The calculating of the fat signals in all the echoes in one echo train length in step S92 and step S96 is: the fat signals in all echoes in one echo train length are calculated using the above equations (1) to (5).

The implementation effect of the technical scheme in the embodiment of the invention is verified through experiments.

The experiment adopts a Siemens 3T magnetic spectrum system (16-Cha) to carry out a living body experiment, and a head/neck coil with 16 channels is used for carrying out head detection on a volunteer. The protocol parameters used were: TE/TR 2.47/6.42ms, BW 250Hz, FOV 173 × 190, Matrix 230 × 288, slices per slice 56, slices OS 28.6%, voxel 0.7 × 0.7 × 1.0mm, Q-fat sat, lines per slice 60, FA 9.

The following is a meaningful explanation of the above protocol parameters:

TE- -echo time in milliseconds;

TR- -repetition time, in milliseconds;

BW- -sampling bandwidth in Hertz;

FOV- -View Window, in millimeters;

matrix — sample Matrix size;

slab per slab-the number of layer-selection direction codes of each imaging block;

voxel- -voxel size in millimeters;

q-fat sat- - -rapid fat pressing;

lines per shot — the number of Lines sampled after each grease squeeze;

FA- - -flip angle size in unit.

Fig. 9 shows a magnetic resonance image of a volunteer, wherein the first column is a magnetic resonance image acquired by data acquisition using the pseudo-intermediate-sequence filling method shown in fig. 2C, and the second column is a magnetic resonance image acquired by data acquisition using the linear filling method in the embodiment of the present invention.

By comparing the magnetic resonance images in different sorting modes in fig. 9, it can be found that, under the same parameter setting, the data acquisition in the linear filling mode in the embodiment of the present invention has a better fat signal suppression effect than the data acquisition in the pseudo central sorting mode, so that the orbital fat signal is further suppressed, and the visual nerve in the reconstructed image is more prominent and clear.

As can be seen from the above solution, since the embodiment of the present invention applies a fat compression pulse that makes the fat signal at the time of acquiring the intermediate echo data 0 or close to zero, that is, the fat compression pulse first suppresses the fat signal to a set negative value rather than a zero value, and then applies the RF pulse train during the period when the fat signal is suppressed and restored to a set positive value, when the linear filling of k-space is performed, the echo data with the low L of the fat signal is located right in the central region of k-space, and compared with the solution in which the fat signal based on the existing fat compression pulse is increased from the 0 value to the first positive value, the solution in which the fat signal based on the new fat compression pulse is increased from the negative value to the second positive value is better in fat compression effect because the fat signal is mainly located near the 0 value.

In addition, when the flip angle of the pressure fat pulse is calculated for the echo in the normal echo train length ETL, the echo train length is reduced in a case where the condition that the fat signal corresponding to the intermediate echo data is 0 or approximately 0 cannot be satisfied, and the echo in the normal ETL is divided into at least two echo groups so that the group members are sequentially extracted at equal intervals in an alternating manner, whereby the flip angle of the pressure fat pulse applied to each echo group can be obtained.

The above description is only for the purpose of illustrating the preferred embodiments of the present invention and is not to be construed as limiting the invention, and any modifications, equivalents, improvements and the like that fall within the spirit and principle of the present invention are intended to be included therein.