Patent ID: 8362769

Claim:
A method to automatically differentiate whether a pixel of a magnetic resonance image acquired by a magnetic resonance system originated from fat-dominated tissue or water-dominated tissue, comprising the steps of: acquiring only one spin echo-based magnetic resonance signal from a patient for each pixel of a magnetic resonance image at a point in time at which a phase of a magnetic resonance signal originating from water tissue in the patient has a phase opposite to a phase of a magnetic resonance signal originating from fat tissue in the patient; in a processor, automatically calculating a phase angle of the pixel from only the acquired only one spin-echo based magnetic resonance signal; in said processor automatically determining a base phase at said pixel dependent on said magnetic resonance system; in said processor, automatically determining a corrected phase angle of said pixel from the phase angle of the pixel and the base phase at the pixel; and in said processor, automatically determining whether said pixel represents fat-dominated tissue or water-dominated tissue using said corrected phase angle of said pixel.