Signal-preserving noise decorrelation

A noise decorrelation computer configured to:

• operating an MR data acquisition scanner, while a subject is situated therein, in order to simultaneously individually acquire, in each of a plurality of reception channels that each has a respective reception antenna, a reference signal representing a physical property of the respective antenna, and an MR measurement signal from a sub-region in a region of the subject, each MR measurement signal being disturbed by additive noise that is represented as a noise signal in the respective reception antenna, with the sub-region from which the respective MR measurement signals originate being defined by said physical property of the respective antenna that receives the respective MR measurement signal, and the respective noise signals of the respective reception channels exhibiting a correlation among all of the respective noise signals, which produces a correlation among the respective reference signals;
• use the noise signals and the reference signals to produce a decorrelation matrix that removes said correlation among said reference signals while preserving respective associations of the respective antennas with the respective sub-regions of the subject;
• apply said noise decorrelation matrix to the respective MR measurement signals so as to produce noise-decorrelated MR measurement signals that retain said association with the respective sub-regions of the subject;
• and
• execute a reconstruction algorithm that uses said physical property in order to reconstruct image data from the respective noise-decorrelated MR measurement signals and to combine the image data so as to produce combined image data depicting said region of the subject, and make the combined image data available in electronic form as a data file from said computer.

A magnetic resonance (MR) apparatus comprising:

• an MR data acquisition scanner comprising a plurality of reception channels, each having a respective reception antenna;
• a computer configured to operate said MR data acquisition scanner, while a subject is situated therein, in order to simultaneously individually acquire, in each of said plurality of reception channels with respective reception antenna thereof, a reference signal representing a physical property of the respective antenna, and an MR measurement signal from a sub-region in a region of the subject, each MR measurement signal being disturbed by additive noise that is represented as a noise signal in the respective reception antenna, with the sub-region from which the respective MR measurement signals originate being defined by said physical property of the respective antenna that receives the respective MR measurement signal, and the respective noise signals of the respective reception channels exhibiting a correlation among all of the respective noise signals, which produces a correlation among the respective reference signals;
• said computer being configured to use the noise signals and the reference signals to produce a decorrelation matrix that removes said correlation among said reference signals while preserving respective associations of the respective antennas with the respective sub-regions of the subject;
• said computer being configured to apply said noise decorrelation matrix to the respective MR measurement signals so as to produce noise-decorrelated MR measurement signals that retain said association with the respective sub-regions of the subject;
• and
• said computer being configured to execute a reconstruction algorithm that uses said physical property in order to reconstruct image data from the respective noise-decorrelated MR measurement signals and to combine the image data so as to produce combined image data depicting said region of the subject, and to make the combined image data available in electronic form as a data file from said computer.

A non-transitory, computer-readable data storage medium encoded with programming instructions, said storage medium being loaded into a computer of a magnetic resonance (MR) apparatus that comprises an MR data acquisition scanner, said programming instructions causing said computer system to:

• operate an MR data acquisition scanner, while a subject is situated therein, in order to simultaneously individually acquire, in each of a plurality of reception channels that each has a respective reception antenna, a reference signal representing a physical property of the respective antenna, and an MR measurement signal from a sub-region in a region of the subject, each MR measurement signal being disturbed by additive noise that is represented as a noise signal in the respective reception antenna, with the sub-region from which the respective MR measurement signals originate being defined by said physical property of the respective antenna that receives the respective MR measurement signal, and the respective noise signals of the respective reception channels exhibiting a correlation among all of the respective noise signals, which produces a correlation among the respective reference signals;
• use the noise signals and the reference signals to produce a decorrelation matrix that removes said correlation among said reference signals while preserving respective associations of the respective antennas with the respective sub-regions of the subject;
• apply said noise decorrelation matrix to the respective MR measurement signals so as to produce noise-decorrelated MR measurement signals that retain said association with the respective sub-regions of the subject;
• and
• execute a reconstruction algorithm that uses said physical property in order to reconstruct image data from the respective noise-decorrelated MR measurement signals and to combine the image data so as to produce combined image data depicting said region of the subject, and make the combined image data available in electronic form as a data file from said computer.