The University of British Columbia

Li An

Qing-San Xiang

A method acquires three complex images, wherein their respective phase differences between water and fat components are .alpha..sub.0, .alpha..sub.0 +.alpha., and .alpha..sub.0 +2.alpha., respectively. The method obtains from these three complex images two possible solution sets for water and fat images. For pixels with both water and fat components, one correct solution set is selected using a binary choice based on the relative Larmor frequencies of water and fat. If a pixel contains only one component, a known statistical bias is applied to identify the component and, thus, the pixel. To correct misidentified pixels, various filters may be applied to all the pixels. The water and fat solutions obtained from the three complex images are used to produce separate images of water and fat. Second pass solutions of water and fat with improved signal-to-noise ratio can be obtained by either averaging or a least square error method.

Water-fat imaging with direct phase encoding (DPE)

Chemical shift imaging with spectrum modeling (CSISM) models the general chemical shift spectrum as a system with N distinct peaks with known resonant frequencies and unknown amplitudes. Based on the N peak spectrum model, a set of nonlinear complex equations is set up that contains N+1 unknowns of two kdnds: the magnitudes of the N peaks, and a phasor map caused by main magnetic field inhomogeneity. Using these equations, the timing parameters for shifting the 180.degree. RF refocusing pulses for acquiring spin-echo images are optimally chosen. Corresponding timing parameters for other pulse sequences can also be optimized similarly. Using the chosen timing parameters, a plurality of images are acquired. Next, acquired image data are automatically processed to solve the complex linear equations. First, the phasor map is found by fitting various phasor map values over a small number of pixels, or 'seeds', that are picked sparsely in a field of view. Second, from the original 'seeds', the region of pixels that are picked to find the best-fit phasor map is grown into the entire field of view, based on a predetermined phase difference between the original seed and a neighboring pixel. The optimal phasor map value is then entered into the complex linear equations to derive the only unknown values at this point--the peak amplitudes. Optionally, second pass solutions of the peak amplitudes may be obtained using a smoothed phasor map value. When the equations are solved, the spectroscopic images are output.

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Li An