A method for acquiring a basic magnetic field inhomogeneity value of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system includes homogenizing an original basic magnetic field of the MRI system into a target magnetic field, providing a magnetic field compensation amount for the MRI system by a dynamic shimming method. The dynamic shimming method includes performing a 3D low-resolution dual-echo gradient echo sequence, and using a general formula to acquire the magnetic field inhomogeneity value, the general formula being: ΔB=ΔB.sub.original+ΔB.sub.compensating, wherein ΔB is the magnetic field inhomogeneity value, ΔB.sub.original is a difference value between the original magnetic field and the target magnetic field, and ΔB.sub.compensating is the magnetic field compensation amount. This method for acquiring a magnetic field inhomogeneity value for an MRI system saves considerable time to map the magnetic field again, thereby shortening the magnetic resonance imaging time, and increasing the efficiency of magnetic resonance imaging.

A magnetic resonance imaging method, a magnetic resonance imaging system, and a computer-readable storage medium are provided. The magnetic resonance imaging method comprises: acquiring a plurality of portions of a k-space by using a plurality of sets of imaging sequences to obtain a plurality of k-space data sets, each set of imaging sequences comprising a pre-dephasing gradient pulse and a plurality of phase encoding gradients applied after the pre-dephasing gradient pulse, wherein the pre-dephasing gradient pulses in the plurality of sets of imaging sequences have a standard area difference in order when sorted according to the sizes of area values, and the standard area difference is 2/N of the area of any phase encoding gradient, where N is the number of sets of the plurality of sets of imaging sequences; respectively reconstructing a magnetic resonance image from each of the plurality of k-space data sets; and processing the plurality of k-space data sets to obtain a magnetic resonance image.

A magnetic resonance imaging system and method, and a computer-readable storage medium are provided. The magnetic resonance imaging method includes: acquiring a plurality of k-space data sets by using a plurality of imaging sequences, each imaging sequence comprising a pre-phase-dispersion gradient pulse and a plurality of phase encoding gradients applied after the pre-phase-dispersion gradient pulse, wherein the pre-phase-dispersion gradient pulses of the plurality of imaging sequences have a standard area difference therebetween when ordered according to area values; respectively reconstructing magnetic resonance images from the respective k-space data sets; and averaging amplitudes of the magnetic resonance images to generate a magnetic resonance image of an average amplitude.

Techniques are disclosed for acquiring magnetic resonance data of an object with a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus. A slice group is imaged whose slices define a contiguous imaging volume and which contains a first number of slices. In a number of concatenations, the magnetic resonance data for subgroups of the slices, each containing a respective second number of slices depending on the first number of concatenations, are acquired, and shimming is performed to increase field homogeneity in the imaging volume. To define the subgroups, the imaging volume is subdivided into at least two disjoint contiguous sub-volumes, and at least two subgroups are defined for each sub-volume, each subgroup only containing non-adjacent slices in the sub-volume. During acquisition of the magnetic resonance data of each subgroup, shimming is at least restricted to the respective sub-volume.

In order to remove restriction on the number of additions in imaging for offsetting errors caused by hardware performance and/or signal fluctuation caused by a hardware control method by inverting the polarity of predetermined hardware output, the present invention executes a first imaging sequence and a second imaging sequence in which the polarity of a predetermined gradient magnetic field pulse in the first imaging sequence was inverted, adds data acquired in each imaging sequence, and then acquires addition images. In order to perform the addition, each coefficient is determined so that the total of coefficients by which first data acquired in the first imaging sequence are to be multiplied is equal to the total of coefficients by which second data acquired in the second imaging sequence are to be multiplied.

The invention relates to a method of MR imaging of an object (10) positioned in an examination volume of a MR device (1). An object of the invention is to provide a method that enables EPI imaging with improved distortion correction. The method of the invention comprises the steps of: acquiring reference MR signal data from the object (10) using a multi-point Dixon method; deriving a B.sub.0 map from the reference MR signal data; acquiring a series of imaging MR signal data sets from the object (10), wherein an instance of an echo planar imaging sequence is used for acquisition of each imaging MR signal data set; and reconstructing an MR image from each imaging MR signal data set, wherein geometric distortions in each MR image are corrected using the B.sub.0 map. Moreover, the invention relates to a MR device (1) for carrying out the method, and to a computer program to be run on a MR device (1).

The present invention provides a magnetic resonance imaging system for imaging a subject by a multi-shot imaging. The magnetic resonance imaging system comprises an acquiring unit for acquiring MR raw data corresponding to a plurality of shots; an imaging unit for generating a plurality of folded images from the MR raw data, wherein each of the plurality of folded images is generated from a subset of the MR raw data; a deriving unit for deriving magnitude of each pixel of each folded image; a detecting unit for detecting a motion of the subject during the multi-shot imaging based on similarity measurements of any two folded images of the plurality of folded images, wherein the detecting unit further comprises a first deriving unit configured to derive the measured similarities; and a reconstructing unit for reconstructing a MR image of the subject based on MR raw data obtained according to a detection result of the detecting unit. Since the partially acquired MR raw data is used for motion detection directly, it would be more rapid and stable.

Described here are systems and methods for correcting magnetic resonance data for off-resonance effects arising from the use of a multi-echo echo planar imaging (“EPI”) pulse sequence. Reference data are acquired, from which phase maps are computed in a distorted coordinate space associated with geometric distortions associated with the multi-echo EPI acquisition. Images reconstructed from the magnetic resonance data are demodulated using the distorted phase maps to produce distortion free images of the subject. Advantageously, the systems and methods can be used to reconstruct distortion free images from magnetic resonance data that is otherwise prone to image distortions from off-resonance errors, including data acquired from hyperpolarized nuclear spin species such as hyperpolarized carbon-13.

Methods and systems for production of silent, multi-gradient-echo, magnetic resonance images are provided. The methods employ iterative application of small updates to the magnetic field gradient followed by a short, non-selective radiofrequency pulse excitation and for free induction decay data acquisition. The magnetic field gradient updates allow for silent, self-refocusing pulse sequence. Subsequent applications of the magnetic field gradients allow for multiple echo data acquisitions, which may allow fast, silent production of T2*-weighted images.

Representative methods and systems are disclosed for reducing image distortion or increasing spatial resolution in echo planar magnetic resonance imaging. In representative embodiments, a targeted field of view (FOV) image is divided into segments, with each segment having a predetermined overlap region with an adjacent segment, such as in a phase-encoding direction. Image data is acquired for each segment, sequentially or simultaneously, using a reduced phase-encoding FOV with a 2D radiofrequency (RF) excitation pulse, and rotated and scaled magnetic field gradients. The 2D RF excitation pulse may also be modulated, such as onto a plurality of different carrier frequencies, for simultaneous acquisition of multiple segments in the same imaging plane. Using the spatial response of the 2D RF excitation pulse, the acquired image data for each segment of the plurality of segments is combined to generate a combined magnetic resonance image having the targeted field of view.