Methods for mitigating local SAR hotspots and flip angle uniformity in ultra-high field simultaneous multislice imaging using parallel transmission

US10641855B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University · US

Inventors

• Mihir R. Pendse · Fremont, US
• Brian Rutt · San Francisco, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Nov 1, 2017
• Grant date: May 5, 2020
• Expiry date: Jan 2, 2038

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01R33/5659
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

Obtaining minimum duration parallel transmit pulses for simultaneous multislice imaging that includes minimizing specific absorption rate hotspots, using an IMPULSE pTx optimization method to determine multiple spoke locations and multiple channel weights for multiple slices while enforcing a specified flip angle inhomogeneity tolerance over the multiple slices when excited, applying a control algorithm to conform a simultaneous multislice (SMS) pulse to the excited multiple slices to minimize a cost function having terms corresponding to an excitation accuracy and a pulse power, where a regularization term in the cost function is configured by the control algorithm for excitation accuracy while limiting a peak pulse power, and applying a time-optimal variable rate selective excitation (VERSE) to enforce a peak power constraint with a minimum pulse duration by reshaping a RF waveform and a gradient waveform without altering an excitation profile if the peak power limit on a channel is exceeded.