Software Platform May Enable MRI Design Breakthroughs

The National Research Council Canada's Institute for Biodiagnostics (NRC-IBD; Ottawa, ON, Canada) has teamed up with Schmid & Partner Engineering AG (SPEAG; Zurich, Switzerland) to offer a new software platform for MRI scanner design. Integrating new tools for radio-frequency (RF) array design and postprocessing, the platform is the first software of its kind to combine all the tools needed to design RF-phased arrays into a single user-friendly program, according to the partners.

With the widespread adoption of multichannel MRI systems using parallel imaging, the design and optimization of receive coil arrays has become imperative and more complex. Coil optimization techniques and performance verification are essential steps for designing coil arrays. The combined NRC-SPEAG software platform provides coil designers with the advanced tools needed to analyze, predict, and simulate array elements.

NRC-IBD and SPEAG have each developed tools for designing coils. NRC-IBD's Musaik RF array designer software analyzes and displays multichannel MRI data using various signal reconstruction techniques with either simulated or experimental input data, while SPEAG's SEMCAD X provides customers with magnetic field design tools for the design of MRI systems.

Musaik and SEMCAD X complement each other, since the output of SEMCAD X software forms the input to NRC's Musaik analysis software. NRC's software can also accept experimental data as input or both simulated and experimental data, allowing for extra functionality.

Musaik enables users to evaluate simulated array coil designs and assess their parallel imaging capabilities. Equivalent analysis is available for experimentally obtained raw data, allowing accurate design verification for a range of different design processes or for evaluating simulation model fidelity. It also provides many different view options for simulated data. Musaik can compute 2-D g-factor maps using any integer reduction mathematically allowed with either simulated or experimental data.

Full, complex noise-covariance matrices are computed within Musaik, minimizing users' technical knowledge requirements. This data can be easily used to assess coil isolation during construction troubleshooting. Many different experimental raw-data formats are supported.

SEMCAD X is the latest generation of 3-D finite difference time-domain and finite integration technique full-wave simulation software. Its application range has been extended by effective genetic algorithms, optimization of structures derived from parameterized computer-aided design, and greater speed. Enhancements to the graphics user interface, including the ACIS CAD modeler and the OpenGL renderer, allow the analysis and design of real-world configurations.

SEMCAD X supports MRI applications such as coil optimization and medical implant evaluations. Its thermal solver supports tensorial blood flow models, discrete blood-vessel trees, and temperature-dependent tissue parameters to determine temperature changes and tissue damage. In addition, it provides a large library of high-resolution 3-D CAD-based anatomical human and animal phantoms.