Fetal cardiac MRI using self-gating with a cartesian k-space trajectory

Inventors

Von Kleist, Henrik Q • Powell, Andrew • Moghari, Mehdi Hedjazi

Assignees

Boston Childrens Hospital

Abstract

Fetal cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) images of a living fetus, within a uterus of a parent of the fetus, can be generated by imaging the fetus within the uterus using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system. Information indicative of fetal cardiac cycles can be derived from MR data obtained by an MRI system while imaging the fetus, the MR data including MR data for the center of k-space. The derived information may be used to differentiate the fetal cardiac cycles from other sources of noise in the MR data such as the parental cardiac cycles.

Core Innovation

The invention generates fetal cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) images of a living fetus within a uterus of a parent by imaging the fetus with an MRI system and deriving information indicative of cardiac cycles of the fetus from MR data. The MR data comprise MR data for the heart of the fetus and MR data from a center of k-space, and the information is used to generate the fetal cardiac MR image.

A key aspect is using blind source separation to extract a parental cardiac motion signal from the MR data, where the parental cardiac motion signal comprises information indicative of motion of a heart of the parent. The derived cardiac-cycle information of the fetus accounts for separation between fetal cardiac-cycle timing and other signals present in the MR data, including parental cardiac motion and MRI noise.

Cardiac-cycle information is derived to support cardiac-phase-based reconstruction and timing. Fetal cardiac-cycle timing is determined using power spectral density of fetal cardiac motion signals derived from blind source separation, including handling harmonics of the parental heart rate, followed by power spectral analysis and selection of cardiac cycles. MR data are grouped into cardiac phases based on the derived cardiac-cycle information, and at least one fetal cardiac MR image is generated based on a selected cardiac phase.

Claims Coverage

The document includes three independent claims: a method claim for generating fetal cardiac MR images, a method claim that derives two potential sets of fetal cardiac cycles for generating at least one image, and an MRI system configured to perform the same core processing. Across these independent claims, the main inventive features include derivation of fetal cardiac cycles from MR data, blind source separation extraction of a parental cardiac motion signal, and generating fetal cardiac cardiac MR images based on the derived fetal cardiac-cycle information.

Across the independent claims, the coverage centers on deriving fetal cardiac-cycle information from MR data during fetal in-utero imaging, extracting a parental cardiac motion signal using blind source separation, and generating fetal cardiac MR images based on the derived fetal cardiac-cycle information. The second independent claim further frames two potential fetal cardiac-cycle sets, including a set corresponding to the parent, for generating at least one fetal cardiac MR image.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications