Magnetic resonance method and device to automatically differentiate water-dominated and fat-dominated tissue

A magnetic resonance system to automatically differentiate whether a pixel of a magnetic resonance image acquired by a magnetic resonance system originated from fat-dominated tissue or water-dominated tissue, comprising:

• a magnetic resonance data acquisition unit adapted to interact with a patient;
• a control unit configured to operate said magnetic resonance data acquisition unit to acquiring only one spin echo-based magnetic resonance signal from the patient for each pixel of a magnetic resonance image at a point in time at which a phase of a magnetic resonance signal originating from water tissue in the patient has a phase opposite to a phase of a magnetic resonance signal originating from fat tissue in the patient;
• a processor configured to automatically calculate a phase angle of the pixel;
• said processor being configured to automatically determine a base phase at said pixel dependent on said magnetic resonance system;
• said processor being configured to automatically determine a corrected phase angle of said pixel from the phase angle of the pixel and the base phase at the pixel;
• and
• said processor being configured to automatically determine whether said pixel represents fat-dominated tissue or water-dominated tissue using said corrected phase angle of said pixel.

A computer-readable medium encoded with programming instructions, said medium being loadable into a computer system of a magnetic resonance apparatus, and said programming instructions causing said computer system to operate said magnetic resonance apparatus to:

• acquire only one spin echo-based magnetic resonance signal for each pixel of a magnetic resonance image at a point in time at which a phase of a magnetic resonance signal originating from water tissue has a phase opposite to a phase of a magnetic resonance signal originating from fat tissue;
• automatically calculate a phase angle of the pixel;
• automatically determine a base phase at said pixel dependent on said magnetic resonance system;
• automatically determine a corrected phase angle of said pixel from the phase angle of the pixel and the base phase at the pixel;
• and
• automatically determine whether said pixel represents fat-dominated tissue or water-dominated tissue using said corrected phase angle of said pixel.