DETAILED ACTION
Response to Amendment
Receipt is acknowledged of the amendment filed 1/9/2026. Claims 1-4, 6-7 and 10-11 were amended. Claims 4-5 and 7 remain objected to for allowable subject matter.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 1/9/2026 have been fully considered but are moot in view of new grounds of rejection. The current rejection of claims 1, 10, and 11 are made over US 2021/0109181 (Beck-181) in view of US 2022/0413080 (Beck-080).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1 and 10-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2021/0109181 (Beck-181) in view of US 2022/0413080 (Beck-080).
Regarding claim 1, Beck-181 teaches a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus (see MR device of Fig. 1) comprising:
sequence control circuitry configured to acquire time-series k-space data by performing stack-of-stars data acquisition on an imaging region of a subject (a host computer monitor is programmed to execute a method of sampling k-space by stack-of-stars imaging in a number of successive time intervals; see [0043]-[0044]); and
processing circuitry configured to: divide the time-series k-space data into a plurality of groups relating to a time direction and calculate for each of the groups a motion feature amount representing a degree of motion of the imaging region based on k-space data of a k-space central portion (A series of echo signals are acquired using multi-shot TFE imaging wherein each shot corresponding to a train of echo signals is acquired, wherein each echo signal represents a k-space profile. The echo signals are acquired as radial k-space profiles (spokes) from a number of parallel k-space slices and implementing a rotational angle of the spokes by employing a golden angle-scheme; see Fig. 2; see [0044]),
correct the k-space data based on the motion feature amount for each of the groups and generate corrected k-space data (an intermediate image 22-25 is generated for each shot and the intermediate images are used to determine a set of transformations T reflecting displacements and deformations induced by motion occurring between the time intervals. The set of transformations T is then applied to the intermediate MR images 22-25 to compensate for the occurred motion resulting in motion-corrected intermediate MR images 22-25 (third column from the left in FIG. 2). See Fig. 2; see [0044]); and
reconstruct an MR image relating to the imaging region based on the corrected k-space data relating to the plurality of groups (the corrected intermediate MR images 22-25 are combined into a high-resolution MR image 26 which is essentially free of motion artifacts; see [0044]; see Fig. 2).
Beck-181 teaches wherein the images comprise multiple shot sampling of k-space by stack-of-stars imaging in a number of successive time intervals using multi-shot TFE imaging, and wherein each the echo signals are acquired as radial k-space profiles from a number of parallel k-space slices, wherein the k-space spokes are rotated by a golden angle using a golden angle-scheme but fails to explicitly teach wherein each of the plurality of groups is a group of spokes of a same angle.
Beck-080 teaches wherein each of the plurality of groups is a group of spokes of a same angle (a multi-shot TFE imaging sequence employing a golden-angle scheme wherein each shot comprises multiple spokes along the same angle and arranged in parallel planes in k-space and the increment of the rotation of the spokes is determined by the golden-angle scheme; see [0006], [0041]; see Fig. 2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the features of Beck-080 into Beck-181 in order to gain the advantage of a stack-of-stars k-space profile using a golden angle-scheme wherein all spokes of a given shot are arranged in the same direction but in different planes which is well-suited for dynamic 4D imaging studies by reducing temporal coherences in k-space and spreading out motion inconsistencies in k-space so that motion artefacts are attenuated.
Regarding claims 10 and 11, the claims recite similar subject matter as claim 1 and are rejected in an equivalent manner as claim 1.
Claim(s) 2-3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2021/0109181 (Beck-181) in view of US 2022/0413080 (Beck-080), and in further view of Zhange et al., 3D self‐gated cardiac cine imaging at 3 Tesla using stack‐of‐stars bSSFP with tiny golden angles and compressed sensing, Magn. Reson. Med. 2019;81:3234–3244US (Zhang) and 2018/0204358 (An).
Regarding claim 2, Beck-181 teaches wherein the processing circuitry generates an intermediate image (see rejection of claim 1), but fails to teach wherein the processing circuitry generates an intermediate image by performing for each of the groups one-dimensional or two-dimensional Fourier transform on the k-space data of the k-space central portion with respect to the k-space direction, and calculates the motion feature amount based on a center of brightness value in the intermediate image every predetermined interval of time.
Zhang teaches wherein the processing circuitry generates an intermediate image by performing for each of the groups one-dimensional or two-dimensional Fourier transform on the k-space data of the k-space central portion with respect to the k-space direction, and calculates the motion feature amount based on center of mass method (motion is determined from a hybrid stack-of-stars data acquisition by performing a 1D FFT of the central data point of each spoke or an average of the five central data points for each spoke to generate an image representing the respiratory motion and cardiac motion time-courses for each shot; see Fig. 1 and Fig. 1 text; See section 2.2 Self-gating signal extraction).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the features of Zhang into Beck-181 in order to gain the advantage of determining cardiac and respiratory movement based on a 1D Fourier transform of the k-space central portions without needing additional navigation measurements wherein the movement may be detected using self-gating signals derived from one or an average of five central points of each spoke.
An teaches calculates the motion feature amount based on a center of brightness value in the intermediate image every predetermined interval of time (a region forms a bright band on the liver area that moves with respiration and it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that a respiratory curve may be determined based on a change of position of the center of the bright band or based on a boundary of the bright band as outlined in the rejection of claim 3; see [0198]; see Fig. 26A).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the features of An into Beck-181 in order to gain the advantage of determining a movement based on a change in a position of different brightness regions, wherein the relatively large change of pixel brightness represents a change from one tissue/material to another. It would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the motion may be determined based on a change in position of the center of a piece of tissue, or based on a change in position of a boundary of different tissues without providing any new or unexpected results.
Regarding claim 3 Beck-181 teaches wherein the processing circuitry generates an intermediate image (see rejection of claim 1), but fails to teach wherein the processing circuitry generates an intermediate image by performing for each of the groups one-dimensional or two-dimensional Fourier transform on the k-space data of the k-space central portion with respect to the k-space direction, and calculates the motion feature amount based on an edge of a specific brightness value region in the intermediate image every predetermined interval of time.
Zhang teaches wherein the processing circuitry generates an intermediate image by performing for each of the groups one-dimensional or two-dimensional Fourier transform on the k-space data of the k-space central portion with respect to the k-space direction (motion is determined from a hybrid stack-of-stars data acquisition by performing a 1D FFT of the central data point of each spoke or an average of the five central data points for each spoke to generate an image representing the respiratory motion and cardiac motion time-courses for each shot; see Fig. 1 and Fig. 1 text; See section 2.2 Self-gating signal extraction).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the features of Zhang into Beck-181 in order to gain the advantage of determining cardiac and respiratory movement based on a 1D Fourier transform of the k-space central portions without needing additional navigation measurements wherein the movement may be detected using self-gating signals derived from one or an average of five central points of each spoke.
An teaches calculates the motion feature amount based on an edge of a specific brightness value region in the intermediate image every predetermined interval of time (a respiratory curve is determined based on a shift up or down of transition regions 602, 604, 606; see [0134]; see Figs. 6A-6C).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the features of An into Beck-181 in order to gain the advantage of determining a movement based on a change in a position of different brightness regions, wherein the relatively large change of pixel brightness represents a change from one tissue/material to another.
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2021/0109181 (Beck-181) in view of US 2022/0413080 (Beck-080), and in further view of US 2004/0071324 (Norris).
Regarding claim 6, Beck-181 fails to teach wherein the processing circuitry generates the corrected k-space data by adding a phase gradient to the k-space data of the k-space central portion based on the motion feature amount.
Norris teaches wherein the processing circuitry generates the corrected k-space data by adding a phase gradient to the k-space data of the k-space central portion based on the motion feature amount (It is possible to perform a more comprehensive correction if a two-dimensional navigator experiments is used. This makes it possible to compensate also for phase gradients which are determined by movement and which move in the direction of the phase-encoding gradient. The correction is made by virtue of the fact that the acquired data are brought retrospectively to the "correct" position in the K-space, i.e. to the particular co-ordinate which corresponds to the sum of the phase gradient, which is produced by movement, and of the phase-encoding gradient. See [0054]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the features of Norris into Beck-181 in order to gain the advantage of correcting a position in k-space corresponding to the phase gradient produced by movement and the phase-encoding gradient.
Claim(s) 8 and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2021/0109181 (Beck-181) in view of US 2022/0413080 (Beck-080), and in further view of US 2022/0203132 (Torres).
Regarding claims 8-9, Beck-181 fails to teach wherein the k-space central portion is a one-dimensional region in a three-dimensional k-space; and wherein the k-space central portion is a two-dimensional region in a three-dimensional k-space.
Torres teaches wherein the k-space central portion is a one-dimensional region in a three-dimensional k-space; and wherein the k-space central portion is a two-dimensional region in a three-dimensional k-space (a navigator is obtained along a Z-dimension and may be a 1D, 2D, or 3D navigator; see Fig. 3A, wherein the navigator may be obtained for separate navigators or from measured datasets; see [0007], [0014], [0062]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the features of Torres into Beck-181 in order to gain the advantage of determining a movement based on 1D or 2D navigators to determine motion in one or two directions.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 5, and 7 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Regarding claim 4, the prior art of record fails to teach or suggest wherein the processing circuitry deforms an intermediate image, which has been generated by performing for each of the groups one-dimensional or two-dimensional Fourier transform on the k-space data of the k-space central portion with respect to the k-space direction, in accordance with the motion feature amount with respect to a real-space direction, and generates corrected k-space data by performing one-dimensional or two-dimensional Fourier transform on the deformed intermediate image with respect to the k-space direction, in combination with all other limitations of claim 1.
Claims 5 and 7, definite and enabled by the specification, are allowed through a dependence on objected claim 4.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See PTO-892.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to STEVEN LEE YENINAS whose telephone number is (571)270-0372. The examiner can normally be reached M - F 10 - 6.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Judy Nguyen can be reached at (571) 272-2258. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/STEVEN L YENINAS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2858