Magnetic resonance spectroscopy pulse sequence, acquisition, and processing system and method

A system for processing a set of multiple serially acquired magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) free induction decay (FID) frames from a multi-frame MRS acquisition series from a region of interest (ROI) in a subject, and for providing a processed MRS spectrum, the system comprising:

• one or more computer processors;
• and
• non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer instructions configured to cause the one or more computer processors to:
• access the set of FID frames;
• associate first and second groups of FID frames within the set with first and second different relative phases, respectively, of a phase step cycle along the MRS acquisition series;
• process the first and second groups separately;
• average the first and second groups separately to form first and second average interim spectra;
• and
• average the first and second average interim spectra to provide the processed MRS spectrum.

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer instructions configured to cause one or more computer processors to:

• access a set of multiple serially acquired magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) free induction decay (FID) frames from a multi-frame MRS acquisition series from a region of interest (ROI) in a subject;
• associate a first subset of the FID frames that have a first relative phase of a phase step cycle along the MRS acquisition series with a first phase group;
• associate a second subset of the FID frames that have a second relative phase of the phase step cycle along the MRS acquisition series with a second phase group;
• perform a first frame editing procedure on the first phase group by identifying qualified frames of the first subset of the FID frames that meet a threshold criterion, and by identifying one or more unqualified frames of the first set of the FID frames that do not meet the threshold criterion;
• perform a second frame editing procedure on the second phase group by identifying qualified frames of the second subset of the FID frames that meet a threshold criterion, and by identifying one or more unqualified frames of the second set of the FID frames that do not meet the threshold criterion;
• combine the qualified frames of the first subset of the FID frames, and exclude the unqualified frames, to provide a first phase group spectrum;
• combine the qualified frames of the second subset of the FID frames, and exclude the unqualified frames, to provide a second phase group spectrum;
• and
• combine the first phase group spectrum and the second phase group spectrum to provide a processed MRS spectrum.