Software

MRSequoia

BCAN is the home of the software package MRSequoia, which provides useful functionality for MR sequence developers. MRSequoia allows for rapid prototyping, testing, visualization and validation of MR sequences. Some of its highlights are:

  • Importing custom MR sequences from the Siemens IDEA sequence simulator

  • Prototyping of MR sequences in just a few lines of Python code using the built-in SequenceBuilder

  • Visualization of the sequence timing as a tree structure

Representation of a simple gradient-echo sequence based on a tree model. Yellow octagons represent loops, corresponding to the repeated execution of all elements beneath. Gradients, RF pulses, ADCs and delays are symbolized by trapezoids, parallelograms, ovals and violet arrows, respectively. The most relevant characteristics of each element are printed within the element's shape.

  • Import of the timing of custom MR sequences from the output of the Siemens IDEA sequence simulator

  • Visualization of the sequence timing

Timing diagram of one shot of the above gradient-echo sequence

  • Connection to MRiLab: the sequence timinig can be imported into the open-source MR simulator MRiLab, which allows for assessing what an image acquired with that sequence timinig would look like.

Simulation of a transverse image (bottom right) acquired with the above gradient-echo sequence. The simulation was performed within MRiLab based on a numerical human brain phantom.

MRSequoia can be freely downloaded from its gitlab page:

https://gitlab.com/sebastiancervus/mrsequoia