An Automated Method for Scan Geometry Planning for MR Knee Imaging

Xiaodong Tao¹

Consistent scan plane prescription for MR imaging of knee joint is very important clinically for easy comparison of images across subjects and in serial evaluation of longitudinal exams. Typical workflow requires careful manual slice positioning and suffers from inter-operator variability. We present a novel algorithm for determining the orientation of the knee joint by segmenting the femur bone from a volumetric localizer image. We have incorporated this approach in a clinical MR system and demonstrated its usefulness in automatically obtaining consistent imaging planes across examinations irrespective of subject position.