Patent ID: 7429862

Claim:
In a magnetic resonance (MR) partial parallel image reconstruction method, wherein MR data are acquired from a subject in each of a plurality of reception channels by a partial parallel acquisition (PPA) technique, resulting in electronically stored k-space data comprising: a plurality of PPA data lines, each containing noise, and consisting of incomplete, measured PPA data lines and complete, reconstructed PPA data lines, and wherein an MR image of the subject is electronically reconstructed from the k-space data of said reception channels using a PPA reconstruction algorithm, which is at least subsequently displayed on a display screen the improvement comprising the steps of, for each reception channel: selecting a region of k-space containing respective portions of some of said incomplete, measured PPA data lines and respective portions of some of said complete, reconstructed PPA data lines; for each PPA data line in said region, identifying a level of said noise therein; for a selected reconstructed, complete PPA data line in said region, automatically electronically calculating a scaling factor dependent on the noise level in the selected reconstructed, complete PPA data line and the noise level in at least one of said incomplete, measured PPA data lines in said region; applying said scaling factor to the selected reconstructed, complete PPA data line to scale a contribution of said selected reconstructed, complete data line within said reconstructed MR image of said subject generated by said PPA reconstruction algorithm and displaying the scaled reconstructed MR image which is at least subsequently displayed on a display screen.