METHODS AND DEVICES FOR COMBINED ECG AND PPU CONTROLLED MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING

摘要

This invention relates to medical imaging of parts of a patient in which imaging data acquisition is gated by a combination of electrocardiogram (ECG) and peripheral pulse (PPU) signals from the patient. ECG and PPU signals obtained from a patient in a medical imaging apparatus, provide one or more synchronization signals dependent on both the ECG and the PPU signals. The synchronization signals indicate occurrences of pre-determined phases of the cyclic movements of the heart only if the PPU signals also indicate that the determined heart phase is physiologically possible. The medical imaging apparatus is controlled by the synchronization signals to collect imaging data synchronized with cyclic movements of the heart from the patient in the examination zone and to reconstruct a medical image of a part of the patient from the collected imaging data. This invention is preferably applied to magnetic resonance imaging and to computed tomographic x-ray imaging.