An accurate interpreter of Pulseq files for GE scanners

Motivation: To enable vendor-neutral MR pulse sequence programming for rapid prototyping and reproducible research. Goal(s): Implement an accurate interpreter of Pulseq files for GE scanners. Approach: We convert the Pulseq file, which is a streaming-based description, to a ‘segment’-based representation where each segment consists of sub-sequences (groups) of Pulseq blocks that are always executed together and in a particular order. This segment is then executed repeatedly with different waveform amplitudes. Results: The proposed Pulseq interpreter for GE scanners allows the execution of arbitrary Pulseq sequences. The same interpreter source code (written in EPIC) can be compiled for all recent GE MRI scanner software versions. Impact: The proposed interpreter allows researchers to design sequences in Pulseq and execute them on GE scanners. This allows rapid prototyping of novel sequences, and identical implementations across sites. Pulseq and the proposed ‘segment’-based description are equivalent vendor-independent sequence descriptions.