Computational approaches to parallel transmission MRI

This thesis is concerned with the design of spatially-selective RF pulses accelerated by parallel transmission. These pulses perturb the magnetisation in an object within a 2D or 3D sub-volume, whilst leaving magnetisation outside of these regions unaffected. As such, they are shown to be useful in...

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Main Author: Mirfin, Christopher
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/60871/
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author Mirfin, Christopher
author_facet Mirfin, Christopher
author_sort Mirfin, Christopher
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This thesis is concerned with the design of spatially-selective RF pulses accelerated by parallel transmission. These pulses perturb the magnetisation in an object within a 2D or 3D sub-volume, whilst leaving magnetisation outside of these regions unaffected. As such, they are shown to be useful in certain dynamic field-shimming strategies. The first chapter reviews the equation of motion for a magnetisation vector and alternative compact formulations; electromagnetic fields in tissue at 7 T; requisite imaging sequences; and some numerical and computational methods. The second chapter reviews some existing design strategies and capabilities of parallel transmission (PTx). It also includes a derivation of the adiabatic condition, which is critical for the design of frequency-modulated pulses. In Chapter 3 the design of short PTx pulses with optimised k-space trajectories to excite an arbitrary 3d volume is presented. As part of this, the parameterisation of the excitation k-space trajectory is considered under alternative linear transformations subject to realistic gradient performance. A GPU is used to reduce computational time of an existing local and a novel second global optimisation algorithm. In Chapter 4 a novel acquisition strategy is developed and implemented to improve the overall static field homogeneity by utilising reduced field of excitation with acceleration via parallel transmission in conjunction with dynamic first-order local shimming. In the preceding chapters the use and design of spatially-selective RF pulses was strictly limited to amplitude-modulated waveforms. In Chapter 5 a spatially-selective FM pulse that is resilient to a level of transmit-field inhomogeneity is implemented. An optimisation scheme is sought that exploits the adiabatic condition to relax the spatial transmit-field magnitude and phase patterns. Chapter 6 discusses the work presented in this thesis, and highlights possible directions for future projects. An Appendix is appended to this thesis, highlighting a software application that was developed to ameliorate some of the experimental workflow challenges associated with pTx.
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spelling nottingham-608712025-02-28T14:57:15Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/60871/ Computational approaches to parallel transmission MRI Mirfin, Christopher This thesis is concerned with the design of spatially-selective RF pulses accelerated by parallel transmission. These pulses perturb the magnetisation in an object within a 2D or 3D sub-volume, whilst leaving magnetisation outside of these regions unaffected. As such, they are shown to be useful in certain dynamic field-shimming strategies. The first chapter reviews the equation of motion for a magnetisation vector and alternative compact formulations; electromagnetic fields in tissue at 7 T; requisite imaging sequences; and some numerical and computational methods. The second chapter reviews some existing design strategies and capabilities of parallel transmission (PTx). It also includes a derivation of the adiabatic condition, which is critical for the design of frequency-modulated pulses. In Chapter 3 the design of short PTx pulses with optimised k-space trajectories to excite an arbitrary 3d volume is presented. As part of this, the parameterisation of the excitation k-space trajectory is considered under alternative linear transformations subject to realistic gradient performance. A GPU is used to reduce computational time of an existing local and a novel second global optimisation algorithm. In Chapter 4 a novel acquisition strategy is developed and implemented to improve the overall static field homogeneity by utilising reduced field of excitation with acceleration via parallel transmission in conjunction with dynamic first-order local shimming. In the preceding chapters the use and design of spatially-selective RF pulses was strictly limited to amplitude-modulated waveforms. In Chapter 5 a spatially-selective FM pulse that is resilient to a level of transmit-field inhomogeneity is implemented. An optimisation scheme is sought that exploits the adiabatic condition to relax the spatial transmit-field magnitude and phase patterns. Chapter 6 discusses the work presented in this thesis, and highlights possible directions for future projects. An Appendix is appended to this thesis, highlighting a software application that was developed to ameliorate some of the experimental workflow challenges associated with pTx. 2020-07-24 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/60871/1/Mirfin2019_corrected.pdf Mirfin, Christopher (2020) Computational approaches to parallel transmission MRI. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. MRI Parallel transmission
spellingShingle MRI
Parallel transmission
Mirfin, Christopher
Computational approaches to parallel transmission MRI
title Computational approaches to parallel transmission MRI
title_full Computational approaches to parallel transmission MRI
title_fullStr Computational approaches to parallel transmission MRI
title_full_unstemmed Computational approaches to parallel transmission MRI
title_short Computational approaches to parallel transmission MRI
title_sort computational approaches to parallel transmission mri
topic MRI
Parallel transmission
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/60871/