Patent Document ID: 9008751
Application ID: 13305496
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An apparatus for producing three-dimensional volume renderings from magnetic resonance image data in real time, the apparatus comprising: a magnetic resonance image (MRI) scanner having a magnetic resonance coil configured to continuously collect MRI data representative of shapes within an image volume; and a computer in data communication with the MRI scanner, the computer configured to continuously receive the MRI data from the MRI scanner, to reconstruct images from partial and complete MRI data, and to produce a three-dimensional rendering of a volume from a plurality of image slices from the MRI data in real time with respect to the act of collecting the MRI data from the magnetic resonance coil, wherein complete MRI data for a particular image slice comprises a set of all collected MRI data for the particular image slice, wherein partial MRI data for the particular image slice comprises a subset of the complete MRI data for the particular image slice, and wherein the computer is configured to update the three-dimensional rendering based on the partial MRI data for the particular image slice and prior to processing the complete MRI data for the particular image slice.