Water-Fat Imaging by Direct Phase Encoding with Solution Along Isophasic Lines (SAIL)

Qing-San Xiang¹

Direct Phase Encoding (DPE) is a simple and efficient technique for water-fat imaging, allowing even pixel level analytical water-fat separation and identification. However, for pixels containing only a single chemical component, the relative phase relationship between water and fat is unavailable. As a result, region growing is often needed to extract phase information from neighboring pixels. This work describes a novel approach to address the single-peak issue. Pixels along isophasic lines should experience the same magnetic field inhomogeneity, and thus satisfy the same equations. Water and fat can then be found by DPE with Solutions Along Isophasic Lines (SAIL).