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Device LocalizaUsing A Low Amplitude RF Pulse at Echo Time Tion in MRI
Device LocalizaUsing A Low Amplitude RF Pulse at Echo Time Tion in MRI
DOI 10.1007/s11517-014-1184-4
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Received: 30 December 2013 / Accepted: 13 August 2014 / Published online: 31 August 2014
International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering 2014
Abstract We describe a new method for frequency downconversion of MR signals acquired with the radio-frequency projections method for device localization. A lowamplitude, off-center RF pulse applied simultaneously with
the echo signal is utilized as the reference for frequency
down-conversion. Because of the low-amplitude and large
offset from the Larmor frequency, the RF pulse minimally
interfered with magnetic resonance of protons. We conducted an experiment with the coil placed at different positions to verify this concept. The down-converted signal was
transformed into optical signal and transmitted via fiberoptic cable to a receiver unit placed outside the scanner
room. The position of the coil could then be determined by
the frequency analysis of this down-converted signal and
superimposed on previously acquired MR images for comparison. Because of minimal positional errors (0.8mm),
this new device localization method may be adequate for
most interventional MRI applications.
Keywords Interventional MRI Device localization
Catheter tracking Frequency down-conversion
Self-mixing
1Introduction
MRI as a real-time imaging modality for use during interventional procedures is an active research area. Although
the spatial resolution with MRI is not close to that of X-ray
methods, more anatomical detail can be visualized because
of increased soft-tissue contrast without exposure to ionizing radiation. Temporal resolution in MRI is also lower
than that of X-ray techniques but demonstrably sufficient to
guide catheterization in humans [32]. MRI is also attractive
for flexible slice positioning and its ability to display different tissue contrasts, motion, and flow. Techniques for catheter tracking in MRI can be grouped into three main categories: passive, semi-active, and active methods [10]. Most
interventions rely on tracking the interventional devices
tip (tip tracking) either in real-time images or in the coordinate system of the MR scanner [2, 3, 9, 22]. Beyond,
defining the device tip, visualization of the interventional
devices shaft [19, 29] may be critical in many clinical scenarios, especially when flexible devices, such as catheters,
are navigated. But even with shaft visibility, tracking of tip
is crucial for most clinical procedures.
Passive tracking involves the use of contrast agents or
paramagnetic materials to enhance the contrast between
the catheter and the surrounding anatomy [25, 36]. Despite
their simplicity in implementation, the passive methods primarily suffer from low contrast-to-noise ratios, and sometimes the appearance of the marker is indistinguishable
from image artifacts [31]. Additionally, the catheter must
be manipulated within the imaging plane since no positional coordinates are generated for automatic scan plane
prescription.
Semi-active techniques are based on local resonant circuits without external connections. Through inductive coupling to the transmit coil, these resonant circuits provide
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2Materials andmethods
Three pieces of a CT dose index (CTDI) phantom were
placed in 12.5cm intervals as shown in Fig.1. On each
piece, there are 9 holes in a 33 placement with 10.61cm
grid interval, resulting in a 21.2221.2225cm3FoV to
investigate and twenty-seven positions in 3-D coordinate
system. A circuit consisting of an LNA, mixer, and optical
transmitter was connected on a 4.36.3cm printed circuit board (PCB). The circuitry, which has a total current
consumption of 24mA, was powered from an MR-compatible battery (MP-174565, 4.8Ah, Saft Batteries, Bagnolet,
1
Anterior
Head
9
2
Posterior
Right
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Left
Foot
887
Saline
filled
tube
Coil
Coax
cable
PCB
Fiberoptic
cable
Level
Plastic
rods
Wood
blocks
MRcompatible
battery
Circuit
(mixer,
LNA, etc.)
Seal
Fig. 2a The distal unit. The coil was immersed in a saline-filled and
sealed glass tube. It was connected to the PCB via a 7-cm coax cable
and an SMA connector. This configuration helped keep the coil outside the no-signal region shielded by the ground plane of the PCB.
All stages were connected from discrete components, and at the
last stage, the electrical signal was converted to optical by the LED
(HFBR-1518). b The part of the experimental setup that was placed
inside the scanner. Three pieces that make up a CTDI phantom were
fixed using a homemade wooden framework such that the distance
between them is 12.5cm. A level put on plastic rods which were
inserted into holes ensured the parallelism of the grid with respect to
the patient table
f0 =
B0 ,
2
(1)
fMR = f0 +
G x,
2
(2)
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LARFET
LARFET
RF
Gradient
(X, Y, Z)
Acquire
Fig.3The pulse sequence used to localize the coil. A frequency
encoding gradient is applied in the direction of localization with a
preceding rewinder gradient. LARFET is applied as soon as the readout gradient reaches its flattop and signal acquisition starts. The vertical dotted line indicates the time point where the area of the positive
polarity gradient equalized the negative part of the gradient and correspondingly the echo time. To overcome the effect of the resonant
offset conditions, two echoes are acquired with opposed polarity gradients
BS
( B1 )2
,
=
2RF
G=
(3)
where all the frequencies are defined with respect to the rotational frame. Therefore, by putting RF=2300kHz
and B1=0.1/3s0.58rad/s into Eq.3, one can obtain
BS1.54107rad/s or fBS2.5108Hz, which
is negligible.
The measurements might be affected by some resonant
offset conditions. Magnetic field inhomogeneities and local
susceptibility gradients may also introduce similar errors.
These errors are corrected by obtaining two echoes with
opposite polarity gradients [11]. In this method, the location was the arithmetic mean of the independently computed locations from the two echoes. This procedure is
repeated for each axis. Hence, four acquisitions are necessary for 2-D and six for 3-D localization.
The duration of the nonselective RF pulse is 0.5ms, and
the signal acquisition (readout) time is 3ms. The readout
gradient is extended to 6ms to dephase the spins and prepare them for the next projection block; hence, one projection block has an 8-ms duration in total. As a result, the
duration of one 3-D complete projection block is approximately 50ms.This can also be reduced to 32ms using Hadamard encoding [11] instead of the 6 excitation scheme.
2.2Frequency encoding gradients
During the echo, together with LARFET, a frequency
encoding (readout) gradient with a bandwidth of 1kHz/
13
2 BW
(4)
889
Loop Antenna
MR
signal
fMR
fMR,
fLA
Passive
Detuning
MIXER
Matching
Tuning
fMR, fLA
LNA
fMR, fLA
2 fMR,
2 fLA,
fMR+fLA,
fMR fLA,
DC
fMR fLA
fMR fLA
LED
fMR, fLA
Fig.4The block diagram of the distal unit. Two signals are acquired
by the loop antenna (tip coil). fMR is the frequency of the MR signal
acquired, and fLA is the frequency of LARFET applied concurrently.
After amplification, the signal is multiplied by itself, and at the output of the mixer, combinations of initial frequencies are generated.
fMR fLA
The frequency analysis consisted of a fast Fourier transform (FFT). The peak in the frequency spectrum was localized, and the position of the coil was computed with the
gradient amplitude taken into account.
fLA in this study was f0 =300kHz. Combining
fPeak=fMRfLA with Eq.2, the following was obtained:
fiber
optic
cable
Band-Pass
Gx
2
Gx
2
The block diagram of the external unit. The signal is reconverted into electrical form using an optical receiver HFBR2528, which is the counterpart of the HFBR-1528, and
finally captured using a digital oscilloscope (DPO4034B,
Tektronix, Beaverton, USA). The frequency analysis is performed offline on a PC using Matlab (Mathworks, Natick,
MA, USA) (Fig. 5).
2.5Frequency analysis
Location =
2
= x,
G
(5)
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890
3Results
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
260
270
280
290
300
310
320
330
340
Frequency (kHz)
Fig.6A sample frequency spectrum obtained during the experiment. It has a sharp peak at 310,053Hz corresponding to a location
100.5mm off-center. The last digit can be ignored because it is below
the precision of the system
4Discussion
A low-amplitude RF pulse was successfully used as a precisely tuned down-converting signal in MRI device localization. Since the location information is encoded in frequency, the accuracy of the localization is dependent on the
frequency accuracy of the down-converting signal. In this
Fig.7Left The nine transversal MR images acquired for locations 3139 are added up and shown as one image. The computed locations are
also superimposed as green plus signs. Right Zoomed images for better visualization
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Fig.8Left Determination of
the center of a sample bright
spot. The center is designated
with a plus sign. Interpolation is
used for subpixel localization.
Right 3-D plot of the region of
interest. It shows the bright spot
as a hill and its boundary as a
contour line
error of the system was around 0.8mm, which corresponds to 1 pixel for a 512512 image of 40cm FoV.
This is mainly due to the fact that imaging experiences the
same amount of distortion from the magnetic field inhomogeneities, as the proposed method. Taking the size of
the coil into account (=2mm, l=3mm), an error of
0.8mm (1pixel) is acceptable. This is also far better than
required accuracies for many interventional procedures and
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comparable to error ranges of similar active tracking systems [15, 23]. Reducing the image resolution within the
same FoV can result in a broader spatial coverage of the
center pixel, and the location found by the system may fall
in it rather than the neighbor pixel, thus virtually increasing
the accuracy of image guidance. The accuracy with current
configuration can also be improved, when necessary, by
repeating the measurements and averaging at the expense
of increased localization time. Since this method is highly
sensitive to magnetic field inhomogeneities, for procedures
like biopsy, where the absolute location would be needed,
this method should be applied carefully and only near the
isocenter, where the inhomogeneities and consecutively the
distortions are smallest.
The precision of the system depends on the spacing in
the discrete frequency domain data (f), which is the sampling frequency divided by the number of samples:
f =
1
f0
= ,
N
L
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5Conclusion
The proposed LARFET technique is successfully demonstrated for device localization in MRI. Down-conversion of
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