Real-time acquisition, display, and interactive graphic control of NMR cardiac profiles and images

A highly interactive MRI scanner interface has been developed that allows, for the first time, real-time graphic control of one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) cardiac MRI exams. The system comprises a Mercury array processor (AP) in a Sun SPARCserver with two connections to the MRI scanner, a data link that passes the NMR data directly to the AP as they are collected, and a control link that passes commands from the Sun to the scanner to redirect the imaging pulse sequence in real time. In the 1D techniques, a cylinder or "pencil" of magnetization is repeatedly excited using gradient-echo or spin-echo line-scan sequences, with the magnetization read out each time along the length of the cylinder, and a scrolling display generated on the Sun monitor. Rubber-band lines drawn on the scout image redirect the pencil or imaging slice to different locations, with the changes immediately visible in the display. M-mode imaging, 1D flow imaging, and 2D fast cardiac imaging have been demonstrated on normal volunteers using this system. This platform represents an operator-"friendly" way of directing real-time imaging of the heart.