Patent ID: 7274190

Claim:
A method of compensating for MR image distortion attributable to a magnetic field drift of a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus, the method comprising the steps of: performing a first data acquisition by a first magnetic resonance signal corresponding to a central k-space line as first echo time after a first excitation, determining a first phase of the first magnetic resonance signal, performing a second data acquisition by a second magnetic resonance signal corresponding to the central k-space line a time interval after the first data acquisition and a second echo time after a second excitation, determining a second phase of the second magnetic resonance signal, determining a shift of a resonance frequency based on a difference of the first and second phases and the first and second echo times, applying the determined resonance frequency shift to compensate for the magnetic field drift, acquiring a plurality of magnetic resonance signals corresponding to the central and a plurality of other k-space data lines and compensated for the magnetic field drift, generating a magnetic field drift compensated MR image from the plurality of acquired magnetic resonance signals.