Method and apparatus for phase-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for phase-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging using an efficient and robust phase correction algorithm. A method includes obtaining a plurality of MRI data signals, such as two-point Dixon data, one-point Dixon data, or inversion recovery prepared data. The method further includes implementing a phase-correction algorithm, that may use phase gradients between the neighboring pixels of an image. At each step of the region growing, the method uses both the amplitude and phase of pixels surrounding a seed pixel to determine the correct orientation of the signal for the seed pixel. The method also includes using correlative information between images from different coils to ensure coil-to-coil consistency, and using correlative information between two neighboring slices to ensure slice-to-slice consistency. A system includes a MRI scanner to obtain the data signals, a controller to reconstruct the images from the data signals and implement the phase-correction algorithm, and an output device to display phase sensitive MR images such as fat-only images and/or water-only images.