Breath-hold water and fat imaging using a dual-echo two-point dixon technique with an efficient and robust phase-correction algorithm

A two-point Dixon technique using a novel phase-correction algorithm and commercially available dual-echo fast gradient-echo pulse sequence is presented. The phase-correction algorithm determines the directional rather than phase distribution of signals due to field inhomogeneities. Specifically, a region-growing scheme uses precalculated spatial gradients of the signal phase to guide the growth sequence, so there is no need to manually select the seeds or use an empirical angular threshold. Further, the determination of the signal direction of a given pixel is based on both the amplitude and phase of the surrounding pixels, the direction of which has already been determined. The advantages of this algorithm include its easy implementation, computational efficiency, and robustness in the presence of pixels with large phase uncertainty. The feasibility and usefulness of the technique are demonstrated in vivo with artifact-free water and fat images of an entire abdomen in a single breath-hold.