Patent Document ID: 20150260817
Application ID: 14656952
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for selecting an optimization method for optimizing a pulse sequence that operates a magnetic resonance scanner comprising a radiofrequency coil system and a gradient coil system, said pulse sequence comprising a plurality of radiofrequency pulses and gradient pulses that respectively activate said radiofrequency coil system and said gradient coil system, said method comprising: providing said pulse sequence to a computer; in said computer, automatically analyzing said pulse sequence to identify at least one segment thereof that is to be optimized; in said computer, automatically applying a plurality of different optimization methods to said at least one segment and thereby obtaining a plurality of differently optimized forms of said at least one segment; in said computer, for each of said differently optimized forms of said at least one segment, determining a frequency spectrum thereof; in said computer, for each differently optimized form of said at least one segment, automatically determining an overall spectrum by multiplying the determined frequency spectrum of the respective differently optimized form of said at least one segment with a transmission function of said magnetic resonance scanner; in said computer, applying a predetermined criterion to each overall spectrum and identifying an overall spectrum that best satisfies said criterion and selecting an optimization method, as a selected optimization method among said plurality of optimization methods, that produced the overall spectrum that best satisfies said criterion; and emitting said pulse sequence, with said at least one segment thereof in the optimized form produced by said selected optimization method, as an electronic signal at an output of said computer in a format configured to operate said magnetic resonance scanner.