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SIMRI documentation

Introduction

SIMRI is an open source C Software. SIMRI is 3D MRI simulator based on the Bloch equations. This simulator proposes an efficient management of the T2* effect and integrates in a unique simulator most of the simulation features that are offered in different simulators. It takes into account the main static field value and enables realistic simulations of the chemical shift artifact including off-resonance phenomena. It also simulates the artifacts linked to the static field inhomogeneity like those induced by susceptibility variation within an object. It is implemented in the C language and the MRI sequence programming is done using high level C functions with a simple programming interface. To manage large simulations, the magnetization kernel is implemented in a parallelized way that enables simulation on PC grid architecture. It is a portable software running on Windows and Linux environnement.

Related publications

[1] H. Benoit-Cattin, G. Collewet, B. Belaroussi, H. Saint-Jalmes, and C. Odet, “The SIMRI project: A versatile and interactive MRI simulator”, Journal of Magnetic Resonance, vol. 173, pp. 97-115, 2005.
[2] H. Benoit-Cattin, F. Bellet, J. Montagnat, C. Odet, “Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) simulation on a grid computing architecture”, In Proc. of IEEE CGIGRID'03- BIOGRID'03, Tokyo, 2003.

Authors and Institutions

Acknowledgements

The SIMRI project started in June 2000 at CREATIS, Lyon France.
The SIMRI project has been initiated thanks to the work done by G. Soufflet on the initial 1D MRI simulator of J. Bittoun.
This work is partly supported by the IST European Data-Grid Project and the French ministry for research ACI-GRID project. This work has been also funded by the INSA Lyon.
We want to thank S. Balac from the CNRS MAPLY lab for its contribution on the susceptibility artifact simulation.
Many thanks to F. Bellet and J. Montagnat for their help in the SIMRI parallelisation and grid implementation.

License

The SIMRI software is distributed under the CeCiLL license (http://www.cecill.info/index.en.html). The CeCiLL license is a free-software license, created under the supervision of the three biggest research institutions on computer sciences in France :

Mailing list

Simri has its mailing list : simri@creatis.insa-lyon.fr
If you are interested, subscribe to the simri mailing list: http://www.creatis.insa-lyon.fr/mailman/listinfo/simri

Warning:
Execution time can be really huge for 2D and 3D simulation. Use small objects.

SIMRI3D Structure

Kernel functions implement the Bloch equations for 3D spin precession simulation and teh effects of magnetic events (RF pulse, gradients). Programming around those functions is not a simple task due to the inherent complex nature of RMN and the parallelization of the code. You probably don't need to use them directly.

Object creation and manipulation functions allow the creation of 1D, 2D or 3D voxelized objects with multiple isochromats and T1, T2, DP etc... defined independantly for each voxel.

Experience functions which set the various conditions before acquisition.

MRI sequence functions which implement the chronological steps necessary to obtain the RF datas sweeping the k-space as required for a specific T1, T2 or DP contrast used in medical imaging for example.

Electromagnetic events functions which configure the electromagnetic events (pulse RF, gradient, precession, acquisition)

Reconstruction functions which take RF k-space data and reconstruct (by FFT) the x-y-z object space.

Test functions are all-in-one jobs for quick testing purpose. They can be used as entry points to learn how to use SIMRI3D and built new sequences.

Display Display functions of 1D,2D,3D RF spaces and images

Utilities Useful general functions


Generated on Wed Oct 19 09:28:32 2005 for SIMRI3D by doxygen 1.3.7