Improving Patient Comfort in MRI with Predictive Acoustic Noise Cancelling

With sound pressure levels reaching up to 130 dB, acoustic noise in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is one of the main sources of patient discomfort in otherwise one of the safest medical imaging modalities. In this work, a noise prediction-based approach, termed predictive noise cancelling (PNC), is applied, for the first time, to suppress noise in MRI. In PN C the noise from the scanner gradient coils is predicted based on linear time-invariant models, which relate the individual gradient coil (X, Y and Z) input to the acoustic noise output. A model setup was constructed of a custom speaker box and MRI -compatible microphone to demonstrate live noise reduction. Additional tuning steps, including output channel equalization and clock mismatch correction, were performed to maximize noise reduction. A calibration sequence was designed to determine the model and tuning parameters. Analysis of actual scanner noise shows an upper limit of 21 dB noise reduction with the proposed linear model. For the components of a clinical example sequence, the setup demonstrated in-bore live noise reduction of up to 10 dB (7.01 ± 0.31 dB, 6.42 ± 2.04 dB and 9.28 ± 0.26 dB for X, Y and Z gradient coils respectively) in the presence of system imperfections. Clinical relevance - The results indicate promising noise attenuation without the need to modify scanner hardware or compromises in acquisition speed or quality. This has potential to substantially and cost effectively improve patient comfort in clinical MRI.