Optimised generation of MRI images by a multi-antenna MRI system

Abstract

The present invention improves the quality of the magnitude and phase images produced in medical imaging, in particular in the case of multi-antenna MRI. The invention proposes to generate (28) such an image (I) by summing the complex image data (pj,{tilde over (p)}j) obtained from different antennas by weighting these data using only the diagonal elements (Rj,j) of an antenna noise covariance matrix or its inverse or pseudo-inverse matrix (Rj,j−1). A reference antenna (Ref) may be determined (24), so as to be able to replace (26), in each of these datum, a phase component specific to the acquisition antenna by a reference phase component. The reference antenna is preferably a virtual antenna formed by linear combination of the antennas of the MRI system. If significant improvements are obtained in the phase image resulting from the summation, a very clear gain is also surprisingly obtained in the magnitude image.

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