System and method for rf interference removal for optimal mri signal to interference ratio

A system for removing radio frequency interference, comprising:

• a memory encoding processor-executable routines;
• and
• a processing system comprising one or more processors and configured to access the memory and to execute the processor-executable routines, wherein the processor-executable routines, when executed by the processing system, cause the processing system to:
• obtain k-space data of a subject acquired from a plurality of receiving channels of a magnetic resonance imaging scanner during a scan, wherein at least some receiving channels of the plurality of receiving channels are located in different spatial locations from other receiving channels of the plurality of receiving channels;
• obtain channel sensitivity data of the plurality of receiving channels acquired with magnetic resonance imaging scanner prior to acquiring the k-space data;
• obtain noise data for the plurality of receiving channels acquired with magnetic resonance imaging scanner prior to acquiring the k-space data;
• and
• linearly combine the k-space data from the plurality of receiving channels based on both the channel sensitivity data and the noise data to estimate virtual channels having virtual k-space data that maximize signal to radio frequency interference ratio while simultaneously isolating zipper artifacts.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium, the non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising processor-executable code that when executed by a processing system comprising one or more processors, causes the processing system to:

• obtain k-space data of a subject acquired from a plurality of receiving channels of a magnetic resonance imaging scanner during a scan, wherein at least some receiving channels of the plurality of receiving channels are located in different spatial locations from other receiving channels of the plurality of receiving channels;
• obtain channel sensitivity data of the plurality of receiving channels acquired with magnetic resonance imaging scanner prior to acquiring the k-space data;
• obtain noise data for the plurality of receiving channels acquired with magnetic resonance imaging scanner prior to acquiring the k-space data;
• and
• linearly combine the k-space data from the plurality of receiving channels based on both the channel sensitivity data and the noise data to estimate virtual channels having virtual k-space data that maximize signal to radio frequency interference ratio while simultaneously isolating zipper artifacts.