MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING APPARATUS WITH AUTO-POSITIONING FUNCTION, METHOD OF CONTROLLING MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING APPARATUS, AND PROGRAM FOR AUTO-SETTING OF IMAGING SECTION
To provide a technique capable of automatically setting the position of an imaging section highly accurately at high speed in an MR examination.SOLUTION: An imaging unit of an MRI apparatus performs: capturing a positioning image of a subject including the spine； first imaging for capturing an image of a section, including the spine, along a longitudinal direction of the spine； and second imaging for capturing an image of a section in a direction traversing the spine. An automatic section position setting unit detects a specific tissue of the spine using a scout image or an image including the spine acquired in the first imaging step, performs a matching process between the detected specific tissue of the spine and a spine model, and calculates and automatically sets a section position for the second imaging on the basis of the position of the specific tissue of the spine identified by the matching process.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 6【課題】ＭＲ検査において、高速且つ高精度に撮像断面位置を自動設定することができる技術を提供する。【解決手段】ＭＲＩ装置の撮像部は、脊椎を含む被検体の位置決め画像の撮像と、脊椎を含み、脊椎の長手方向に沿った断面を撮像する第一撮像と、脊椎を横断する方向の断面を撮像する第二撮像とを実行する。自動断面位置設定部は、スカウト画像又は第一撮像ステップで取得した、脊椎を含む画像を用いて、脊椎の特定組織を検出し、検出した脊椎の特定組織と脊椎モデルとのマッチング処理を行い、マッチングにより特定された脊椎の特定組織位置に基づき、第二撮像の撮像断面位置を算出し、自動設定する。【選択図】図６
