Agentic MR sequence development: leveraging LLMs with MR skills for automatic physics-informed sequence development

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Zaiss, Moritz, Aly, Amr, Endres, Jonathan, Dornstetter, Tobias, Weinmüller, Simon, Maier, Andreas
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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author Zaiss, Moritz
Aly, Amr
Endres, Jonathan
Dornstetter, Tobias
Weinmüller, Simon
Maier, Andreas
author_facet Zaiss, Moritz
Aly, Amr
Endres, Jonathan
Dornstetter, Tobias
Weinmüller, Simon
Maier, Andreas
contents Purpose: Novel MR sequence developments still today allow generation of new diagnostic tools or novel imaging biomarkers. Programming MRI pulse sequences, however, is time-consuming and requires deep expertise in sequence design, restrictions by hardware constraints and MRI physics; even small modifications often require substantial debugging and validation. LLMs can assist when given structured prompts and error feedback, but many generated sequences still exhibit physical inconsistencies. We present Agent4MR, an agent-based framework that automatically generates and refines PyPulseq sequences using a structured, physics-aware validation report. These agents can perform also autonomous research. Methods: We evaluated Agent4MR on a spin-echo EPI task across three state-of-the-art LLMs and compared it to a context-only baseline (LLM4MR) and to a human developer with the same tools. We tested an MR autoresearch on a fluid-suppressed spin-echo EPI challenge for three different model generations. Results: Across all models, Agent4MR consistently produced artifact-free, physically valid sequences in a single user interaction, reducing the number of required interactions below the human baseline while maintaining correct timing and k-space coverage. Autonomous agents could then improve a sequence to match a given target contrast in an autoresearch approach. Conclusion: An appropriate agentic harness with physics-based validation can turn general-purpose LLMs into reliable MRI sequence developers and may ultimately enable non-experts to refine or innovate MR sequences guided by biological or clinical questions, or let swarms of agents realize sequence programming for them. Keywords: MRI; pulse sequence; PyPulseq; large language models; agents; autoresearch, sequence development.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_13282
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Agentic MR sequence development: leveraging LLMs with MR skills for automatic physics-informed sequence development
Zaiss, Moritz
Aly, Amr
Endres, Jonathan
Dornstetter, Tobias
Weinmüller, Simon
Maier, Andreas
Medical Physics
I.2.11; I.2.1; J.3
Purpose: Novel MR sequence developments still today allow generation of new diagnostic tools or novel imaging biomarkers. Programming MRI pulse sequences, however, is time-consuming and requires deep expertise in sequence design, restrictions by hardware constraints and MRI physics; even small modifications often require substantial debugging and validation. LLMs can assist when given structured prompts and error feedback, but many generated sequences still exhibit physical inconsistencies. We present Agent4MR, an agent-based framework that automatically generates and refines PyPulseq sequences using a structured, physics-aware validation report. These agents can perform also autonomous research. Methods: We evaluated Agent4MR on a spin-echo EPI task across three state-of-the-art LLMs and compared it to a context-only baseline (LLM4MR) and to a human developer with the same tools. We tested an MR autoresearch on a fluid-suppressed spin-echo EPI challenge for three different model generations. Results: Across all models, Agent4MR consistently produced artifact-free, physically valid sequences in a single user interaction, reducing the number of required interactions below the human baseline while maintaining correct timing and k-space coverage. Autonomous agents could then improve a sequence to match a given target contrast in an autoresearch approach. Conclusion: An appropriate agentic harness with physics-based validation can turn general-purpose LLMs into reliable MRI sequence developers and may ultimately enable non-experts to refine or innovate MR sequences guided by biological or clinical questions, or let swarms of agents realize sequence programming for them. Keywords: MRI; pulse sequence; PyPulseq; large language models; agents; autoresearch, sequence development.
title Agentic MR sequence development: leveraging LLMs with MR skills for automatic physics-informed sequence development
topic Medical Physics
I.2.11; I.2.1; J.3
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.13282