System and method for parallel magnetic resonance imaging

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method for reconstructing images acquired with both parallel imaging and partial Fourier acquisition technique using a plurality of receiver coils, the method comprising:

• acquiring a set of first partial under-sampled k-space data related to a target area of an object with parallel imaging and partial Fourier acquisition using the plurality of receiver coils;
• respectively performing parallel imaging reconstruction by k-space interpolation of the set of first partial under-sampled k-space data respectively acquired by each of the plurality of receiver coils;
• recovering respectively missing k-space lines of the set of first partial under-sampled k-space data;
• respectively combining each of the set of first partial under-sampled k-space data and corresponding missing k-space lines to generate a set of second partial under-sampled k-space data for each of the plurality of receiver coils;
• respectively forming a plurality of full k-space datasets by implementing partial Fourier reconstruction on the set of second partial under-sampled k-space data;
• respectively reconstructing a plurality of images from the plurality of full k-space datasets;
• and
• combining the plurality of images into a final image.

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system for parallel imaging reconstruction, the system comprising:

• a magnetic field generating unit configured to apply a plurality of RF pulses to a target area of an object;
• a plurality of receiver coils configured to receive MR signals from the target area;
• a processing unit;
• a system memory;
• and
• machine readable instructions stored in the system memory that, when executed by the processing unit, cause the processing unit to:
• acquire a set of first under-sampled k-space data related to a target area of an object respectively corresponding to the plurality of receiver coils;
• receive a set of second partial or fully-sampled k-space data related to the target area respectively corresponding to the set of first under-sampled k-space data;
• perform k-space interpolation of the set of the first under-sampled k-space data respectively acquired by each of the plurality of receiver coils;
• recover respectively missing k-space lines of each of the set of first under-sampled k-space data using corresponding second partial or fully-sampled k-space data and corresponding first under-sampled k-space data;
• form a plurality of full k-space datasets related to the target area by respectively combining each of the set of first under-sampled k-space data and corresponding recovered missing k-space lines for each of the plurality of receiver coils;
• obtain a plurality of fully-sampled images from the plurality of full k-space datasets corresponding to the plurality of receiver coils;
• and
• combine images of each individual coils into a final image.