MRI apparatus for imaging body fluids by suppressing the background tissues

摘要

An MRI apparatus which images a subject in such that body fluid that flows is emphasized over background tissues, includes a first coil control device that causes a transmission coil and a gradient coil to execute a first pulse sequence for causing longitudinal magnetization components of the background tissues to differ from a longitudinal magnetization component of the body fluid, a second coil control device that causes the transmission coil and the gradient coil to execute a second pulse sequence that inverts the longitudinal magnetization components of the body fluid and the background tissues a plurality of times after the execution of the first pulse sequence, and a third coil control device that causes the transmission coil and the gradient coil to execute a third pulse sequence for acquiring each MR signal of the body fluid after the execution of the second pulse sequence.

主权项

1. A Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) apparatus configured to image a subject such that a body fluid that flows into an imaging area of the subject is emphasized over a plurality of background tissues existing in the imaging area, said MRI apparatus comprising:
a transmission coil configured to transmit a Radio Frequency (RF) pulse to the subject; a gradient coil configured to apply a gradient pulse to the subject; and a controller including a first coil control device, a second coil control device, and a third coil control device, the first coil control device configured to cause said transmission coil and said gradient coil to execute a first pulse sequence that causes values of longitudinal magnetization components of the background tissues to become zero and causes a value of a longitudinal magnetization component of the body fluid to become a positive value, the second coil control device configured to cause said transmission coil and said gradient coil to execute a second pulse sequence that inverts the longitudinal magnetization components of the body fluid and the background tissues, said second coil control device configured to execute the second pulse sequence a plurality of times after the execution of the first pulse sequence and cause said transmission coil to transmit a plurality of non-selective inversion pulses a plurality of times to invert the longitudinal magnetization components of the body fluid and the background tissues, the third coil control device configured to cause said transmission coil and said gradient coil to execute a third pulse sequence for acquiring each Magnetic Resonance (MR) signal of the body fluid after the execution of the second pulse sequence, wherein said third coil control device is further configured to cause said transmission coil to transmit an excitation pulse while an absolute value of the longitudinal magnetization component of the body fluid is larger than an absolute value of each of the longitudinal magnetization components of the background tissues.