Method for data acquisition acceleration in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with N-dimensional spatial encoding using two or more receiver coil arrays and non-linear phase distributions

A method for accelerating data acquisition in MRI with N-dimensional spatial encoding to generate a high-resolution image free of artifacts in a time-efficient manner, the method comprising the steps of:

• a) preparing, within an imaged object volume, a transverse magnetization having a spatially non-linear phase distribution;
• b) effecting primary spatial encoding through application of switched magnetic fields;
• c) simultaneously recording, using two or more RF receivers and during or following step b), MR signals originating from the imaged object volume, wherein, for each RF receiver, an N-dimensional data matrix is recorded which is undersampled by a factor Ri, per selected k-space direction;
• and
• d) reconstructing data points belonging to a k-space matrix which were not recoded by a selected acquisition schema using a parallel imaging method, wherein reference information concerning receiver coil sensitivities is extracted from a phase-scrambled reconstruction of the undersampled data matrix, thereby improving data sampling efficiency and reducing overall data acquisition time, wherein a strength of applied encoding fields and a number of encoding steps is selected such that direct image reconstruction using a Fourier transform would result in an image FOV smaller than a desired FOV or having an image resolution which is lower than desired.