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Anand S, Lustig M. Beat Pilot Tone (BPT): Simultaneous MRI and RF motion sensing at arbitrary frequencies. Magn Reson Med 2024; 92:1768-1787. [PMID: 38872443 DOI: 10.1002/mrm.30150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2023] [Revised: 04/13/2024] [Accepted: 04/23/2024] [Indexed: 06/15/2024]
Abstract
PURPOSE To introduce a simple system exploitation with the potential to turn MRI scanners into general-purpose radiofrequency (RF) motion monitoring systems. METHODS Inspired by Pilot Tone (PT), this work proposes Beat Pilot Tone (BPT), in which two or more RF tones at arbitrary frequencies are transmitted continuously during the scan. These tones create motion-modulated standing wave patterns that are sensed by the receiver coil array, incidentally mixed by intermodulation in the receiver chain, and digitized simultaneously with the MRI data. BPT can operate at almost any frequency as long as the intermodulation products lie within the bandwidth of the receivers. BPT's mechanism is explained in electromagnetic simulations and validated experimentally. RESULTS Phantom and volunteer experiments over a range of transmit frequencies suggest that BPT may offer frequency-dependent sensitivity to motion. Using a semi-flexible anterior receiver array, BPT appears to sense cardiac-induced body vibrations at microwave frequencies (≥ $$ \ge $$ 1.2 GHz). At lower frequencies, it exhibits a similar cardiac signal shape to PT, likely due to blood volume changes. Other volunteer experiments with respiratory, bulk, and head motion show that BPT can achieve greater sensitivity to motion than PT and greater separability between motion types. Basic multiple-input multiple-output (4 × 22 $$ 4\times 22 $$ MIMO) operation with simultaneous PT and BPT in head motion is demonstrated using two transmit antennas and a 22-channel head-neck coil. CONCLUSION BPT may offer a rich source of motion information that is frequency-dependent, simultaneous, and complementary to PT and the MRI exam.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suma Anand
- Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, California
| | - Michael Lustig
- Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, California
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Neumann T, Ludwig J, Kerkering KM, Speier P, Seifert F, Schaeffter T, Kolbitsch C. Ultra-wide band radar for prospective respiratory motion correction in the liver. Phys Med Biol 2023; 68. [PMID: 36763999 DOI: 10.1088/1361-6560/acbb51] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2022] [Accepted: 02/10/2023] [Indexed: 02/12/2023]
Abstract
Objective.T1 mapping of the liver is time consuming and can be challenging due to respiratory motion. Here we present a prospective slice tracking approach, which utilizes an external ultra-wide band radar signal and allows for efficient T1 mapping during free-breathing.Approach.The fast radar signal is calibrated to an MR-based motion signal to create a motion model. This motion model provides motion estimates, which are used to carry out slice tracking for any subsequent clinical scan. This approach was evaluated in simulations, phantom experiments andin vivoscans.Main results.Radar-based slice tracking was implemented on an MR system with a total latency of 77 ms. Moving phantom experiments showed accurate motion prediction with an error of 0.12 mm in anterior-posterior and 0.81 mm in head-feet direction. The model error remained stable for up to two hours.In vivoexperiments showed visible image improvement with a motion model error three times smaller than with a respiratory bellow. For T1 mapping during free-breathing the proposed approach provided similar results compared to reference T1 mapping during a breathhold.Significance.The proposed radar-based approach achieves accurate slice tracking and enables efficient T1 mapping of the liver during free-breathing. This motion correction approach is independent from scanning parameters and could also be used for applications like MR guided radiotherapy or MR Elastography.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tom Neumann
- Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Braunschweig and Berlin, Germany
| | - Juliane Ludwig
- Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Braunschweig and Berlin, Germany
| | - Kirsten M Kerkering
- Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Braunschweig and Berlin, Germany
| | | | - Frank Seifert
- Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Braunschweig and Berlin, Germany
| | - Tobias Schaeffter
- Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Braunschweig and Berlin, Germany.,Technische Universität Berlin, Biomedical Engineering, Berlin, Germany
| | - Christoph Kolbitsch
- Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Braunschweig and Berlin, Germany
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Madore B, Hess AT, van Niekerk AMJ, Hoinkiss DC, Hucker P, Zaitsev M, Afacan O, Günther M. External Hardware and Sensors, for Improved MRI. J Magn Reson Imaging 2023; 57:690-705. [PMID: 36326548 PMCID: PMC9957809 DOI: 10.1002/jmri.28472] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2022] [Revised: 09/26/2022] [Accepted: 09/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Complex engineered systems are often equipped with suites of sensors and ancillary devices that monitor their performance and maintenance needs. MRI scanners are no different in this regard. Some of the ancillary devices available to support MRI equipment, the ones of particular interest here, have the distinction of actually participating in the image acquisition process itself. Most commonly, such devices are used to monitor physiological motion or variations in the scanner's imaging fields, allowing the imaging and/or reconstruction process to adapt as imaging conditions change. "Classic" examples include electrocardiography (ECG) leads and respiratory bellows to monitor cardiac and respiratory motion, which have been standard equipment in scan rooms since the early days of MRI. Since then, many additional sensors and devices have been proposed to support MRI acquisitions. The main physical properties that they measure may be primarily "mechanical" (eg acceleration, speed, and torque), "acoustic" (sound and ultrasound), "optical" (light and infrared), or "electromagnetic" in nature. A review of these ancillary devices, as currently available in clinical and research settings, is presented here. In our opinion, these devices are not in competition with each other: as long as they provide useful and unique information, do not interfere with each other and are not prohibitively cumbersome to use, they might find their proper place in future suites of sensors. In time, MRI acquisitions will likely include a plurality of complementary signals. A little like the microbiome that provides genetic diversity to organisms, these devices can provide signal diversity to MRI acquisitions and enrich measurements. Machine-learning (ML) algorithms are well suited at combining diverse input signals toward coherent outputs, and they could make use of all such information toward improved MRI capabilities. EVIDENCE LEVEL: 2 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bruno Madore
- Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Aaron T Hess
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, FMRIB, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Adam MJ van Niekerk
- Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | | | - Patrick Hucker
- Division of Medical Physics, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Maxim Zaitsev
- Division of Medical Physics, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Onur Afacan
- Computational Radiology Laboratory, Department of Radiology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Matthias Günther
- Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Medicine MEVIS, Bremen, Germany
- University Bremen, Bremen, Germany
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Balzovsky EV, Buyanov YI, Koshelev VI, Nekrasov ES. Dual polarized receiving steering antenna array for measurement of ultrawideband pulse polarization structure. THE REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS 2016; 87:034703. [PMID: 27036799 DOI: 10.1063/1.4942250] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
To measure simultaneously two orthogonal components of the electromagnetic field of nano- and subnano-second duration, an antenna array has been developed. The antenna elements of the array are the crossed dipoles of dimension 5 × 5 cm. The arms of the dipoles are connected to the active four-pole devices to compensate the frequency response variations of a short dipole in the frequency band ranging from 0.4 to 4 GHz. The dipoles have superimposed phase centers allowing measuring the polarization structure of the field in different directions. The developed antenna array is the linear one containing four elements. The pattern maximum position is controlled by means of the switched ultrawideband true time delay lines. Discrete steering in seven directions in the range from -40° to +40° has been realized. The error at setting the pattern maximum position is less than 4°. The isolation of the polarization exceeds 29 dB in the direction orthogonal to the array axis and in the whole steering range it exceeds 23 dB. Measurement results of the polarization structure of radiated and scattered pulses with different polarization are presented as well.
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Affiliation(s)
- E V Balzovsky
- Institute of High Current Electronics SB RAS, IHCE SB RAS, Tomsk 634055, Russia
| | - Yu I Buyanov
- Institute of High Current Electronics SB RAS, IHCE SB RAS, Tomsk 634055, Russia
| | - V I Koshelev
- Institute of High Current Electronics SB RAS, IHCE SB RAS, Tomsk 634055, Russia
| | - E S Nekrasov
- Institute of High Current Electronics SB RAS, IHCE SB RAS, Tomsk 634055, Russia
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Sun L, Li Y, Hong H, Xi F, Cai W, Zhu X. Super-resolution spectral estimation in short-time non-contact vital sign measurement. THE REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS 2015; 86:044708. [PMID: 25933881 DOI: 10.1063/1.4916954] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
Non-contact techniques for measuring vital signs attract great interest due to the benefits shown in medical monitoring, military application, etc. However, the presence of respiration harmonics caused by nonlinear phase modulation will result in performance degradation. Suffering from smearing and leakage problems, conventional discrete Fourier transform (DFT) based methods cannot distinguish the heartbeat component from closely located respiration harmonics in frequency domain, especially in short-time processing. In this paper, the theory of sparse reconstruction is merged with an extended harmonic model of vital signals, aiming at achieving a super-resolution spectral estimation of vital signals by additionally exploiting the inherent sparse prior information. Both simulated and experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has superior performance to DFT-based methods and the recently applied multiple signal classification algorithm, and the required processing window length has been shortened to 5.12 s.
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Affiliation(s)
- Li Sun
- School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China
| | - Yusheng Li
- School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China
| | - Hong Hong
- School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China
| | - Feng Xi
- School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China
| | - Weidong Cai
- School of Information Technologies, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
| | - Xiaohua Zhu
- School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China
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Niendorf T, Schulz-Menger J. [Cardiovascular ultrahigh field magnetic resonance imaging : challenges, technical solutions and opportunities]. Radiologe 2014; 53:422-8. [PMID: 23613023 DOI: 10.1007/s00117-012-2348-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
CLINICAL/METHODICAL ISSUE This involves high spatial resolution cardiac imaging with ultrahigh magnetic fields (7 T) and clinically acceptable image quality. STANDARD RADIOLOGICAL METHODS Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at a field strength of 1.5 T using a spatial resolution of (2 × 2 × 6-8) mm(3). METHODICAL INNOVATIONS Cardiac MRI at ultrahigh field strength makes use of multitransmit/receive radiofrequency (RF) technology and development of novel technology that utilizes the traits of ultrahigh field MRI. PERFORMANCE Enhanced spatial resolution which is superior by a factor of 6-10 to what can be achieved by current clinical cardiac MRI. The relative spatial resolution (pixels per anatomical structure) comes close to what can be accomplished by current cardiac MRI in small rodents. ACHIEVEMENTS Feasibility studies demonstrate the gain in spatial resolution at 7.0 T due to the sensitivity advantage inherent to ultrahigh magnetic fields. PRACTICAL RECOMMENDATIONS Please stay tuned and please put further weight behind the solution of the remaining technical problems of cardiac MRI at 7.0 T.
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Affiliation(s)
- T Niendorf
- Berlin Ultrahigh Field Facility (B.U.F.F.), Max-Delbrück Centrum für Molekulare Medizin, Robert-Rössle-Str. 10, 13125, Berlin, Deutschland.
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Ultra-wideband sensors for improved magnetic resonance imaging, cardiovascular monitoring and tumour diagnostics. SENSORS 2010; 10:10778-802. [PMID: 22163498 PMCID: PMC3231085 DOI: 10.3390/s101210778] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2010] [Revised: 11/22/2010] [Accepted: 11/25/2010] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The specific advantages of ultra-wideband electromagnetic remote sensing (UWB radar) make it a particularly attractive technique for biomedical applications. We partially review our activities in utilizing this novel approach for the benefit of high and ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other applications, e.g., for intensive care medicine and biomedical research. We could show that our approach is beneficial for applications like motion tracking for high resolution brain imaging due to the non-contact acquisition of involuntary head motions with high spatial resolution, navigation for cardiac MRI due to our interpretation of the detected physiological mechanical contraction of the heart muscle and for MR safety, since we have investigated the influence of high static magnetic fields on myocardial mechanics. From our findings we could conclude, that UWB radar can serve as a navigator technique for high and ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging and can be beneficial preserving the high resolution capability of this imaging modality. Furthermore it can potentially be used to support standard ECG analysis by complementary information where sole ECG analysis fails. Further analytical investigations have proven the feasibility of this method for intracranial displacements detection and the rendition of a tumour’s contrast agent based perfusion dynamic. Beside these analytical approaches we have carried out FDTD simulations of a complex arrangement mimicking the illumination of a human torso model incorporating the geometry of the antennas applied.
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Thiel F, Kreiseler D, Seifert F. Non-contact detection of myocardium's mechanical activity by ultrawideband RF-radar and interpretation applying electrocardiography. THE REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS 2009; 80:114302. [PMID: 19947742 DOI: 10.1063/1.3238506] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Electromagnetic waves can propagate through the body and are reflected at interfaces between materials with different dielectric properties. Therefore the reason for using ultrawideband (UWB) radar for probing the human body in the frequency range from 100 MHz up to 10 GHz is obvious and suggests an ability to monitor the motion of organs within the human body as well as obtaining images of internal structures. The specific advantages of UWB sensors are high temporal and spatial resolutions, penetration into object, low integral power, and compatibility with established narrowband systems. The sensitivity to ultralow power signals makes them suitable for human medical applications including mobile and continuous noncontact supervision of vital functions. Since no ionizing radiation is used, and due to the ultralow specific absorption rate applied, UWB techniques permit noninvasive sensing with no potential risks. This research aims at the synergetic use of UWB sounding combined with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to gain complementary information for improved functional diagnosis and imaging, especially to accelerate and enhance cardiac MRI by applying UWB radar as a noncontact navigator of myocardial contraction. To this end a sound understanding of how myocardial's mechanic is rendered by reflected and postprocessed UWB radar signals must be achieved. Therefore, we have executed the simultaneous acquisition and evaluation of radar signals with signals from a high-resolution electrocardiogram. The noncontact UWB illumination was done from several radiographic standard positions to monitor selected superficial myocardial areas during the cyclic physiological myocardial deformation in three different respiratory states. From our findings we could conclude that UWB radar can serve as a navigator technique for high and ultrahigh field magnetic resonance imaging and can be beneficial preserving the high resolution capability of this imaging modality. Furthermore it can potentially be used to support standard electrocardiography (ECG) analysis by complementary information where sole ECG analysis fails, e.g., electromechanical dissociation.
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Affiliation(s)
- F Thiel
- Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Abbestr. 2-12, 10587 Berlin, Germany.
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