SYSTEME D'ALIGNEMENT DE PATIENT POUR DES EXAMENS PAR RESONANCE MAGNETIQUE NUCLEAIRE

L'INVENTION CONCERNE L'IMAGERIE MEDICALE.UN SYSTEME D'ALIGNEMENT DE PATIENT POUR UN APPAREIL DE RESONANCE MAGNETIQUE NUCLEAIRE COMPORTE NOTAMMENT UN CERTAIN NOMBRE DE SOURCES LUMINEUSES 24, 26, 28, 30, 32 DESTINEES A DEFINIR UN POINT DE REFERENCE VISIBLE SUR UN PATIENT 18 POUR ALIGNER UNE REFERENCE ANATOMIQUE DU PATIENT DANS UNE POSITION PREPARATOIRE A L'EXPLORATION. ON UTILISE ENSUITE LA POSITION DE REFERENCE POUR LOCALISER LE VOLUME A EXPLORER ET POUR DEPLACER AUTOMATIQUEMENT LE PATIENT DE FACON QUE LE VOLUME A EXPLORER SE TROUVE DANS LA REGION HOMOGENE OPTIMALE DU CHAMP MAGNETIQUE DE POLARISATION.APPLICATION AUX SYSTEMES DE RESONANCE MAGNETIQUE NUCLEAIRE. A patient alignment system utilizes stationary and mobile light fan beams for precisely positioning a patient for performing NMR studies. One assembly of preferably laser light sources is utilized to create a visible reference point for aligning a patient anatomical reference in the staged scan position. The reference position is then used as a reference to locate the scan volume and to automatically translate the patient so that the scan volume is in the optimum homogeneous region of the polarizing magnetic field. Two laser assemblies, each separately operable to provide a vertically movable laser fan beam, are used to locate a vertical reference point. The vertical reference point is used to retrospectively reconstruct images centered in the field of view. The vertical reference point is used to obtain prospectively image data to reconstruct magnified zoom or unmagnified images offset from the isocenter.