Patent ID: 8229197
Filing Date: 2012-07-24
Classification: A61B,G01R

Abstract:
1. A method for planning an angiography image acquisition of a body region of a subject in a magnetic resonance system having a field of view, said body region being larger than said maximum field of view, said method comprising the steps of: establishing an upper boundary and a lower boundary of said body region, said upper boundary designating the abdomen of the subject and the lower boundary designating the lower legs of the subject, and making the respective designations of said upper boundary and said lower boundary accessible to a control unit of the magnetic resonance system; in said control unit, automatically dividing said body region into an initial division comprising a plurality of sub-measurement regions between the abdomen and the lower legs of the subject dependent on said upper boundary and said lower boundary, in which sub-measurements are to be conducted in succession to acquire diagnostic angiography image information from each of the sub-measurement regions by moving the subject through the magnetic resonance system to cause said sub-measurement regions to move successively into said field of view, said sub-measurement regions comprising a first sub-measurement region at the abdomen of the subject and a last sub-measurement region at the lower legs of the subject; prior to acquiring said diagnostic angiography image information, injecting a test bolus of a contrast agent into the subject and detecting arrival of the injected test bolus into only the respective first and last sub-measurement regions by acquiring magnetic resonance data only from the respective first and last sub-measurement regions by detecting when a magnetic resonance signal value reaches a threshold in vessels in the respective first and last sub-measurement regions; from the respective arrival times of the test bolus in the first and last sub-measurement regions, automatically determining, in said control unit, a detected transit time of the test bolus through the body region; in the control unit, automatically determining, a workflow for executing acquisition of said diagnostic angiography image information of an entirety of said body region, comprising a executing sequence of sub-measurements for receptively acquiring magnetic resonance data from all of the sub-measurement regions, and a time duration for acquiring said magnetic resonance data in all of the sub-measurements; and in said control unit, automatically comparing said time duration and said detected transit time to determine whether the initial division of the body region into said plurality of sub-measurement regions allows said workflow to be completed within said detected transit time and, if not, automatically adapting said sub-measurements and said sub-measurement regions to cause said workflow to have a time duration within the detected transit time.