1,721,269 research outputs found
A method for reducing secondary field effects in asymmetric MRI gradient coil design
No full textGoal: This research introduces an original method for the design of MRI gradient coils that reduces secondary field effects created by eddy current coupling. The method is able to deal with asymmetric coils and provides a new way to ensure a reduction in the magnitude of the eddy current induced fields. Methods: New constraints are introduced at the surface of passive objects to bind the normal field component below a given value. This value is determined by first treating the passive surface as an active surface, and then, calculating the ideal stream function on that surface to produce the desired secondary field. Two coils were designed, one to image the knee and the other to image the head and neck. Results: The secondary field was analyzed using linear regression and was found to improve the secondary field from 10.41 to 0.498 mT/m and from 7.84 to 0.286 mT/m in the examples used. The power loss in the passive structure also decreased to below 1% of the original value using the new method. Conclusion: The method shows the ability to constrain the field to values below the minimum seen under the traditional approaches. Significance: This will allow the design of asymmetric systems with highly linear, reduced magnitude of secondary fields and may lead to better image quality
The coil array method for creating a dynamic imaging volume
No full textPurpose: Gradient strength and speed are limited by peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) thresholds. The coil array method allows the gradient field to be moved across the imaging area. This can help reduce PNS and provide faster imaging for image-guided therapy systems such as the magnetic resonance imaging-guided linear accelerator (MRI-linac). Theory: The coil array is designed such that many coils produce magnetic fields, which combine to give the desired gradient profile. The design of the coil array uses two methods: either the singular value decomposition (SVD) of a set of field profiles or the electromagnetic modes of the coil surface. Methods: Two whole-body coils and one experimental coil were designed to investigate the method. The field produced by the experimental coil was compared to simulated results. Results: The experimental coil region of uniformity (ROU) was moved along the axis as shown in simulation. The highest observed field deviation was 16.9% at the edge of the ROU with a shift of 35 mm. The whole-body coils showed a median field deviation across all offsets below 5% with an eight-coil basis when using the SVD design method. Conclusion: Experimental results show the feasibility of a moving imaging region within an MRI with a low number of coils in the array
Synthesis of the Cooling Pathways Optimal Layout for MRI Split Gradient Coils
No full textMagnetic resonance imaging systems are sensitive to heating: hot spots can lead to a degradation of the image quality and system failure. Gradient coils are required to produce highly uniform and fast switching magnetic fields in order to spatially encode samples within a volume. When optimizing for heating and power loss there is a tradeoff for ideal magnetic performance. This paper investigates an automatic design procedure for gradient coil cooling systems which allows a strict relation between gradient coil design, performed through different criteria power and energy oriented, and its optimal cooling layout. Power and energy optimized split gradient coils are both cooled using an optimized layout based on a Dijkstra's algorithm approach. Both systems see a large reduction in temperature values allowing the magnetically optimized coil to be used despite its increased power loss. This method can help ensure gradient coils can be optimized primarily for magnetic performance while keeping excess heating under control
An improved asymmetric gradient coil design for high-resolution MRI head imaging
No full textFor head magnetic resonance imaging, local gradient coils are often used to achieve high solution images. To accommodate the human head and shoulder, the head gradient coils are usually designed in an asymmetric configuration, allowing the region-of-uniformity (ROU) close to the coil's patient end. However, the asymmetric configuration leads to technical difficulties in maintaining a high gradient performance for the insertable head coil with very limited space. In this work, we present a practical design configuration of an asymmetric insertable gradient head coil offering an improved performance. In the proposed design, at the patient end, the primary and secondary coils are connected using an additional radial surface, thus allowing the coil conductors distributed on the flange to ensure an improvement in the coil performance. At the service end, the primary and shielding coils are not connected, to permit access to shim trays, cooling system piping, cabling, and so on. The new designs are compared with conventional coil configurations and the simulation results show that, with a similar field quality in the ROU, the proposed coil pattern has improved construction characteristics (open service end, well-distributed wire pattern) and offers a better coil performance (lower inductance, higher efficiency, etc) than conventional head coil configurations
Mixed-dimensional elements in transient thermal analysis of gradient coils
No full textThis article proposes a numerical formulation for handling mixed-dimensional elements embedded in a standard three-dimensional (3d) mesh, avoiding thus the volume meshing of filaments and strips. The method is then applied to predict the temperature heating and cooling profile of gradient coils in magnetic resonance imaging. These coils are typically constructed from copper wires or tracks and embedded in an epoxy layer. It was found that the new method significantly reduces the computational time of steady-state and transient simulations, with speedups in the range of 3.5-5. The method proved to be accurate, with relative errors below 0.5% for steady-state simulations and 1.5% with respect to a complete 3d simulation
Coupled magnetothermal analysis of gradient coils in MRI scanners
No full textThis paper describes the coupled electromagnetic-thermal analysis of gradient coils for magnetic resonance imaging. This application deserves special attention because the eddy-current analysis of gradient coils is usually performed using filamentary and shell elements, while thermal analysis requires volume elements. This paper aims to present a seamless method to couple the mixed-element discretizations (1D, 2D, and 3D) and to project the outputs of eddy currents simulation into the corresponding thermal sources. Special attention is devoted to the management of closed domains within the integral shell element formulation
Intra-coil interactions in split gradient coils in a hybrid MRI-LINAC system
No full textAn MRI–LINAC system combines a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system with a medical linear accelerator (LINAC) to provide image-guided radiotherapy for targeting tumors in real-time. In an MRI–LINAC system, a set of split gradient coils is employed to produce orthogonal gradient fields for spatial signal encoding. Owing to this unconventional gradient configuration, eddy currents induced by switching gradient coils on and off may be of particular concern. It is expected that strong intra-coil interactions in the set will be present due to the constrained return paths, leading to potential degradation of the gradient field linearity and image distortion. In this study, a series of gradient coils with different track widths have been designed and analyzed to investigate the electromagnetic interactions between coils in a split gradient set. A driving current, with frequencies from 100 Hz to 10 kHz, was applied to study the inductive coupling effects with respect to conductor geometry and operating frequency. It was found that the eddy currents induced in the un-energized coils (hereby-referred to as passive coils) positively correlated with track width and frequency. The magnetic field induced by the eddy currents in the passive coils with wide tracks was several times larger than that induced by eddy currents in the cold shield of cryostat. The power loss in the passive coils increased with the track width. Therefore, intra-coil interactions should be included in the coil design and analysis process
Mitigation of Intra-coil Eddy Currents in Split Gradient Coils in a Hybrid MRI-LINAC System
No full textObjective: The aim of this study is to mitigate intra-gradient coil eddy currents in a hybrid MRI-LINAC system. Methods: The tracks of the gradient coils are modified by cutting slits along the current flow direction. The electromagnetic model developed was first experimentally validated and then used to study the impacts of the slit conductors on the energized and surrounding coils. In this study, gradient coils were slit with different numbers of sub-Tracks and driven by a current with frequencies ranging from 100 Hz to 10 kHz. The proposed configuration was assessed by evaluating a number of system parameters, such as the gradient magnetic field, the power loss generated in the surrounding unenergized coil (hereafter referred to as passive coils), and the performance of the energized coil. Results: It was found that at a typical operating frequency of 1 kHz and compared with a conventional (no cut) split coil structure, the new coil pattern (with four slits) offered improved coil parameters. 1) The average power loss dissipated in the surrounding passive coil was significantly reduced by 85%, 2) the cuts largely reduced the secondary field generated by the eddy currents in the passive coil, which was reduced to about 4% of that produced by the uncut coil and, 3) the performance of the energized coil with slit tracks was significantly improved. Some typical gradient coil parameters, such as the figure of merit, efficiency (η), and \eta ^{2}/R (where η is the efficiency and R is the resistance), were improved by 8.0%, 11.9%, and 45.7%, respectively. Conclusion and Significance: The new slit coil structure is effective in mitigating intra-coil eddy current effects, which is an important issue in the MRI-LINAC system
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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