Patent ID: 7587231

Claim:
A method of separating and identifying water and fat magnetic resonance (MR) images of a body with balanced steady state free-precession (SSFP), said method comprising: using an MRI apparatus to: (a) select a time of repetition (TR) and a time to echo period (TE) for a phase-cycled SSFP sequence in accordance with a desired water-fat phase arrangement for echo components after isolation, said echo components respectively corresponding to different echo-formation pathways and containing signals emanating from both fat and water nuclei; (b) apply the SSFP sequence with the selected TR and TE at said selected values to obtain MR SSFP data from the body being imaged; (c) isolate the acquired SSFP data into multiple of said echo components in which water and fat signals have the desired phase arrangements; (d) generate a field correction map from the isolated echo components data or using a field map already available from the MRI apparatus; (e) apply the field correction map to correct the isolated echo components data wherein water and fat signals in the data are orthogonal or substantially orthogonal; and (f) generate water and fat images from the phase-corrected isolated echo components data.