Patent Application
20100033172
The present invention relates to an arrangement for influencing and/or detecting and/or locating magnetic particles in a region of action. Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for influencing and/or detecting and/or locating magnetic particles and to the use of magnetic particles.
An arrangement of such a kind is known from German patent application DE 101 51 778 A1. In the case of the method described in that publication, first of all a magnetic field having a spatial distribution of the magnetic field strength is generated such that a first sub-zone having a relatively low magnetic field strength and a second sub-zone having a relatively high magnetic field strength are formed in the examination zone. The position in space of the sub-zones in the examination zone is then shifted, so that the magnetization of the particles in the examination zone changes locally. Signals are recorded which are dependent on the magnetization in the examination zone, which magnetization has been influenced by the shift in the position in space of the sub-zones, and information concerning the spatial distribution of the magnetic particles in the examination zone is extracted from these signals, so that an image of the examination zone can be formed. Such an arrangement and such a method have the advantage that it can be used to examine arbitrary examination objects—e. g. human bodies—in a non-destructive manner and without causing any damage and with a high spatial resolution, both close to the surface and remote from the surface of the examination object.
Nevertheless, the overall setup of such an arrangement has the substantial drawback that only magnetization signals of such magnetic particles are accessible to the receiving means which are located in or near the first sub-zone of the region of action. In other words, the overall setup of the known arrangement limits the interaction of the magnetic particles with the drive field to a defined space (“field of view”) at the first sub-zone or near the first sub-zone, thereby limiting the covering of the field of view. A further drawback of the known arrangement lies in the fact that for very high resolutions of e.g. better than 10 μm, the selection field moves the magnetic particles out of the field of view.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an arrangement partially similar to the arrangement mentioned initially, in which the drawbacks of the prior art are avoided or at least reduced.
The above object is achieved by an arrangement for influencing and/or detecting and/or locating magnetic particles in a region of action, wherein the arrangement comprises drive means for generating a magnetic drive field so that the magnetization of the magnetic particles changes, wherein the magnetic particles comprise at least a first magnetic particle, the arrangement further comprising receiving means for acquiring signals, which signals depend on the magnetization of the first magnetic particle in the region of action, the receiving means comprising at least a first receiving probe providing a first signal and a second receiving probe providing a second signal, the arrangement further comprising detection means for determining signal features arising from the first magnetic particle in the first signal and in the second signal.
The advantage of such an arrangement is that potentially a larger part of the region of action or the totality of the region of action is taken continuously into consideration when conducting a measurement with the inventive arrangement and/or according to the inventive method. According to the present invention, the power of spatial resolution when locating magnetic particles and the quality of locating the magnetic particles depends on the one hand on the number of the magnetic particles, their size and/or their density in respect of a given volume of the region of action and on the other hand on the configuration or the mode of operation of the receiving means of the arrangement and their power of temporal resolution of the signals recorded by the receiving means. According to the present invention, it is the different magnetization responses of the different magnetic particles inside the, e.g. oscillating, magnetic drive field that are used to differentiate or to distinguish the individual or particular magnetic particles. The different magnetization responses are also called signal features. Especially, the different magnetization responses of the different magnetic particles inside the magnetic drive field are provided as Barkhausen jumps (abrupt changes of the magnetization of at least the first and/or the second magnetic particle), but other physical effects leading to distinguishable magnetization responses of the different particles can also be used according to the present invention. The different magnetization responses of the different magnetic particles are more or less deterministic for each particle but in general quite stochastic for different particles. According to the present invention, it is possible to compare the different magnetization responses in different signals recorded in parallel by the receiving means such that the location of each magnetic particle can be reconstructed due to the fact that the different magnetization responses are in general separated in the time domain of the recorded signals. The detection means are preferably provided such that a signal processing unit compares the different signals of the different receiving probes such that the signal features and therefore the different particles can be determined. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the localization of the first magnetic particle depends on the amplitude of the signal features in the first signal and in the second signal. The different strength (or amplitude) of the different magnetization responses in the signals of different receiving probes (positioned at different locations relative to the magnetic particles) allows the determination of the position of the individual particle if the signal features of that particle are detectable. Thereby, due to the fact that the magnetization of the first magnetic particle and of the second magnetic particle is distinguishable due to, e.g., Barkhausen jumps induced by the magnetic drive field, it is possible localize the individual magnetic particles.
Furthermore, it is preferred that the magnetization of the first magnetic particle and of the second magnetic particle is distinguishable in the time domain and/or that the receiving means comprise a multitude of receiving probes. It is thereby advantageously possible to distinguish a multitude of different magnetic particles.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first receiving probe and the second receiving probe are positioned such that by comparing the first signal and the second signal, information about the spatial relationship of the first magnetic particle and the second magnetic particle relative to the first receiving probe and the second receiving probe is accessible. Advantageously, it is thereby possible to provide the possibility to individually locate the magnetic particles with a relatively good spatial resolution. This is due to the fact that a magnetic particle located nearer to the first receiving probe than to the second receiving probe will normally (i.e. with identical conditions in other respects) induce a stronger magnetization response in the first signal (the signal provided by the first receiving probe) than in the second signal (the signal provided by the second receiving probe).
According to still a further embodiment of the present invention, the arrangement comprises selection means for generating a magnetic selection field having a pattern in space of its magnetic field strength such that a first sub-zone having a low magnetic field strength and a second sub-zone having a higher magnetic field strength are formed in the region of action. Thereby, it is advantageously possible according to the present invention that the magnetic field experienced by the different individual magnetic particles to be localized can be changed such that the portion of the region of action where only the magnetic drive field is present (and no supplementary magnetic field) is reduced such that the number of individual magnetic particles to localize is sufficiently small that it is possible to separate the individual magnetization responses of these particles in the time domain of the signal delivered by the receiving probes. Without such a magnetic selection field (and thereby the generation of the first sub-zone of the region of action where a comparably low magnetic field strength is present in comparison to the second sub-zone of the region of action where (the absolute value of) the magnetic field strength is higher) and in a situation where too many individual magnetic particles are to be localized such that the separation in the time domain of the signals delivered by the receiving probes is not possible anymore, no correct localization of the magnetic particles is possible. For example, this is the case in the situation where too many magnetic particles generate their magnetization response due to the applied exterior magnetic field (e.g. a homogeneous magnetic drive field) at the same time, i.e. for example the Barkhausen jumps occur almost simultaneously. The (normally inhomogeneous, especially gradient like formed) magnetic selection field which is superposed on the (normally homogeneous) magnetic drive field changes the spatial distribution of the exterior magnetic field that the different magnetic particles experience. Therefore, by applying the magnetic selection field, it is possible to change the moment of occurrence of the Barkhausen jumps for a subset of the individual particles under investigation (corresponding more or less to those magnetic particles located inside the second sub-zone of the region of action) such that the time domain signals delivered by the receiving probes are less crowded (due to a smaller number of magnetic particles in or near the first sub-zone of the region of action) and the magnetization responses of the magnetic particles in or near the first sub-zone can be more easily separated.
According to the present invention, it is to be understood that the selection means and/or the drive means and/or the receiving means can at least partially be provided in the form of one single coil or solenoid. However, it is preferred according to the present invention that separate coils are provided to form the selection means, the drive means and the receiving means. Furthermore according to the present invention, the selection means and/or the drive means and/or the receiving means can each be composed of separate individual parts, especially separate individual coils or solenoids, provided and/or arranged such that the separate parts form together the selection means and/or the drive means and/or the receiving means. Especially for the drive means and/or the selection means, a plurality of parts, especially pairs for coils (e.g. in a Helmholtz or Anti-Helmholtz configuration) are preferred in order to provide the possibility to generate and/or to detect components of magnetic fields directed in different spacial directions.
According to the present invention, it is preferred that the drive means and/or the receiving means comprises at least partially a litz wire/stranded wire and preferably that the litz wire comprises a plurality of individual wires, each individual wire being surrounded by an electrically high resistive material. It is thereby possible to provide a very high current supporting surface inside the drive means and/or the receiving means which is important both for the case that an AC current with a comparably high frequency is to be supported and for the case that a DC current or an AC current having a comparably low frequency is to be supported by the drive means and/or the receiving means but in the presence of a static and/or an dynamic magnetic field that penetrates the drive means and/or the receiving means. According to the present invention, it is preferred that the litz wire is spun such that one individual wire is e.g. in the center of the litz wire at one position along the extension direction of the litz wire and that this individual wire is e.g. in the periphery of the litz wire at another position along the extension direction of the litz wire. Thereby it is possible that each one of all the individual wires is preferably provided such that, e.g. in a loop formed by the litz wire, the same impedance is realized by each individual wire. In still a further preferred embodiment of the present invention, the current supporting paths (e.g. the individual wires of the litz wire) are arranged such that the resistance in a given working frequency band and in a given electromagnetic field penetrating the current supporting paths is substantially minimal, i.e. dominated by thermal noise, especially generated by thermal noise due to the presence of the magnetic particles in the region of action, i.e. the resistance of the current supporting paths without the presence of an object (of examination) in the region of action is comparable or smaller than the resistance in presence of an object in the region of action. This is achieved in particular by means of carefully defining the individual current paths (e.g. individual wires), current strength, coil configuration and other characteristics of the current supporting paths of the selection means and/or of the drive means. Furthermore and in the case of current supporting paths in the form of litz wires, it is preferred that the litz wire has a ratio of the summed cross sectional area of the individual wires relative to the cross sectional area of the litz wire (filling factor) in a specified range and/or that the individual wires of the litz wire have a diameter of approximately 1 μm to approximately 50 μm, preferably of approximately 10 μm to approximately 25 ρm. It is thereby possible to greatly enhance the used current supporting surface inside the litz wire and therefore to realise a reduced resistance of the overall configuration of the selection means and/or of the drive means and/or of the receiving means. Typically, the filling factor of the litz wire of the selection means and/or of the drive means is in the range of about 0.30 to about 0.70, preferably in the range of around 0.50, and therefore higher than the filling factor of the litz wire of the receiving means which is in the range of about 0.01 to about 0.20, preferably in the range of about 0.03 to about 0.10. Furthermore, the diameter of the individual wires of the litz wire of the selection means and of the drive means can be chosen higher than the diameter of the individual wires of the litz wire of the receiving means. According to the present invention, it is very advantageous to take into consideration a change in conducting properties of selection means or drive means if these means are penetrated by the magnetic field of each other. The resistance of the selection means, the drive means and/or the receiving means should be chosen as low as possible in the given environment or penetration pattern. The selection means and the drive means together are also called “field generator means”. The selection means comprise magnetic field generation means that provide either a static (gradient) magnetic selection field and/or a comparably slowly changing long range magnetic selection field with frequencies in the range of about 1 Hz to about 100 Hz. Both the static part and the comparably slowly changing part of the magnetic selection field can be generated by means of a permanent magnet or by means of coils or by a combination thereof. The drive means comprise magnetic field generation means that provide a magnetic drive field with frequencies in the range of about 1 kHz to about 200 kHz or even to about 5 MHz, preferably about 10 kHz to about 100 kHz. At least part of the field generator means (i.e. the selection means and the drive means) can be implemented by discrete coils where the diameter of the current supporting path (or the individual wires in the case of litz wire) of each coil or of each field generator means has to be chosen in such a way that the skin effect does not increase the resistance of the coil.
The present invention further refers to a method for influencing and/or detecting and/or locating magnetic particles in a region of action, wherein the method comprises the steps of
The advantage of such a method is that potentially a larger part of the region of action or the totality of the region of action can be taken into consideration continuously when conducting a measurement according to the inventive method.
Very preferably according to an embodiment of the present invention, the localization of the first magnetic particle depends on the amplitude of the signal features in both the first signal and the second signal. Very preferably the detection of the signal features is repeated for at least a second magnetic particle. In a further preferred embodiment of the present invention, the method further comprises the step of distinguishing in the time domain in the first signal and in the second signal magnetization responses related to the first magnetic particle and to the second magnetic particle respectively. This has the advantage that very flexible and dynamically adaptive measurements are possible according to the present invention.
It is furthermore preferred according to the present invention that the method further comprises the step of determining the spatial relationship of the first magnetic particle and the second magnetic particle. Thereby, a very precise location of the magnetic particles is possible.
Very preferably according to the present invention, the method comprises the step of generating a magnetic selection field having a pattern in space of its magnetic field strength such that a first sub-zone having a low magnetic field strength and a second sub-zone having a higher magnetic field strength are formed in the region of action. And in still a further preferred embodiment of the present invention, the location of the first magnetic particle and of the second magnetic particle is determined by analyzing the first signal and the second signal. Thereby, the inventive method is applicable both to situations where a comparably small number of magnetic particles are to be localized and to situations where a comparably large number of magnetic particles are to be localizes or analyzed.
The present invention further refers to the use of magnetic particles in an inventive arrangement or in method according to the present invention, where the magnetic particle shows a multidomain magnetic behavior and/or a ferromagnetic and/or a ferrimagnetic behavior. By the use of appropriate magnetic particles showing the property of deterministically providing a magnetization response due to a certain exterior magnetic field, it is possible to apply the inventive arrangement and the method according to the present invention to a large number of possible measurement scenarios.
These and other characteristics, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the invention. The description is given for the sake of example only, without limiting the scope of the invention. The reference figures quoted below refer to the attached drawings.
The present invention will be described with respect to particular embodiments and with reference to certain drawings but the invention is not limited thereto but only by the claims. The drawings described are only schematic and are non-limiting. In the drawings, the size of some of the elements may be exaggerated and not drawn on scale for illustrative purposes.
Where an indefinite or definite article is used when referring to a singular noun, e.g. “a”, “an”, “the”, this includes a plural of that noun unless something else is specifically stated.
Furthermore, the terms first, second, third and the like in the description and in the claims are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances and that the embodiments of the invention described herein are capable of operation in other sequences than described of illustrated herein.
Moreover, the terms top, bottom, over, under and the like in the description and the claims are used for descriptive purposes and not necessarily for describing relative positions. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances and that the embodiments of the invention described herein are capable of operation in other orientations than described or illustrated herein.
It is to be noticed that the term “comprising”, used in the present description and claims, should not be interpreted as being restricted to the means listed thereafter; it does not exclude other elements or steps. Thus, the scope of the expression “a device comprising means A and B” should not be limited to devices consisting only of components A and B. It means that with respect to the present invention, the only relevant components of the device are A and B.
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According to the present invention, a so-called magnetic drive field 221 is generated in the region of action 300 by drive means 220. The magnetic drive field 221 is preferably variable in time, e.g., by means of an AC current in a coil of the drive means 220, for example with a sinusoidal variation. The magnetic particles 100 experience this magnetic drive field 221 inside the region of action 300.
In order to generate these magnetic drive fields 221 for any given direction in space, there are provided three coil pairs, namely a first coil pair 220′, a second coil pair 220″ and a third coil pair 220′″ which together are called drive means 220 in the following. For example, the first coil pair 220′ generates a component of the magnetic drive field 221 which extends in a given direction, i.e. for example vertically. To this end the windings of the first coil pair 220′ are traversed by equal currents in the same direction. The two coil pairs 220″, 220′″ are provided in order to generate components of the magnetic drive field 221 which extend in a different direction in space, e.g. horizontally in the longitudinal direction of the region of action 300 (or the patient 350) and in a direction perpendicular thereto. If second and third coil pairs 220″, 220′″ of the Helmholtz type were used for this purpose, these coil pairs would have to be arranged to the left and the right of the region of treatment or in front of and behind this region, respectively. This would affect the accessibility of the region of action 300 or the region of treatment 300. Therefore, the second and/or third magnetic coil pairs or coils 220″, 220′″ are also arranged above and below the region of action 300 and, therefore, their winding configuration must be different from that of the first coil pair 220′. Coils of this kind, however, are known from the field of magnetic resonance apparatus with open magnets (open MRI) in which a radio frequency (RF) coil pair is situated above and below the region of treatment, said RF coil pair being capable of generating a horizontal, temporally variable magnetic field. Therefore, the construction of such coils need not be further elaborated herein.
The arrangement 10 according to the present invention further comprise receiving means 230 that are only schematically shown in
According to the present invention, the magnetic particles inside the region of action 300 experience the temporally changing magnetic drive field 220. This results in a change of the magnetization in the region of action 300. According to the present invention, each magnetic particle 110, 120, 130 to be localized or detected should be individually detected by means of the receiving means 230—in the present example by means of the first and second receiving probe 231, 232. This is possible if magnetic particles 110, 120, 130 are used such that a change in the external (magnetic drive) field 221 which is experienced by these particles 110, 120, 130 results in a more or less deterministic behavior of the magnetization response of each of the individual particles 110, 120, 130. This is explained in greater detail in connection with
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As an optional feature in connection with an arrangement 10 according to the present invention,
The frequency ranges usually used for or in the different components of the selection means 210, drive means 220 and receiving means 230 are roughly as follows: The magnetic field generated by the selection means 210 does either not vary at all over the time or the variation is comparably slow, preferably between approximately 1 Hz and approximately 100 Hz. The magnetic field generated by the drive means 220 varies preferably between approximately 10 kHz and approximately 100 kHz. The magnetic field variations that the receiving means are supposed to be sensitive are preferably in a frequency range of approximately 50 kHz to approximately 10 MHz.
For further details of the preferred magnetic particles 100, the corresponding parts of DE 10151778 are hereby incorporated by reference, especially paragraphs 16 to 20 and paragraphs 57 to 61 of EP 1304542 A2 claiming the priority of DE 10151778.
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| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 06126581.5 | Dec 2006 | EP | regional |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB07/55158 | 12/17/2007 | WO | 00 | 6/17/2009 |
