Patent ID: 6289233
Filing Date: 2001-09-11
Classification: A61B,G01R

Abstract:
A method for tracking the location of a device within the field of view of an Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system, the steps comprising:a) attaching to the device a means for producing an nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) tracking signal;b) acquiring; with the MRI system, an NMR tracking data set comprised of a plurality of NMR tracking signals, each tracking signal being acquired with a different tracking measurement pulse sequence;c) Fourier transforming the plurality of NMR tracking signals to produce a corresponding plurality of projections;d) calculating the location of the device using said plurality of projections;e) indicating the location of the device;f) re-acquiring, with the MRI system, one of the NMR tracking signals in the NMR tracking data set;g) Fourier transforming the re-acquired NMR tracking signal to produce a respective updated projection, said plurality of projections being updated with said respective updated projection;h) indicating an updated device location by repeating d) and e); andi) repeating f), g) and h) to provide a series of updated device location indications and in which all the NMR tracking signals in the NMR tracking data set are periodically re-acquired on a round-robin basis.