Three-point method and system for fast and robust field mapping for EPI geometric distortion correction

1. An MRI apparatus comprising:

a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system having a plurality of gradient coils positioned about a bore of a magnet, and

an RF transceiver system and an RF switch controlled by a pulse module configured to transmit RF signals to an RF coil assembly in order to acquire MR images; and

a computer having a non-transitory computer readable medium programmed to:

acquire a first data point at a first location in a first phase image data set, wherein the first phase image data set is acquired at a first echo time (TE);

acquire a second data point at the first location in a second phase image data set, wherein the second phase image data set is acquired at a second TE larger than the first TE such that phase wrapping does not occur between the first and second phase image data sets;

acquire a third data point at the first location in a third phase image data set, wherein the third phase image data set is acquired at a third TE larger than the second TE such that phase wrapping occurs between the second and third phase image data sets; and

determine a magnetic field inhomogeneity, wherein the determination of the magnetic field inhomogeneity is based on a phase of the first, second, and third data points at the first location.

2. The MRI apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first, second, and third phase image data sets are consecutive phase image data sets.

3. The MRI apparatus of claim 1 wherein the computer is further programmed to determine a first phase accumulation between the first and second data points.

4. The MRI apparatus of claim 3 wherein the computer is further programmed to determine a phase of the third data point; wherein the phase of the third data point is wrapped relative to the second data point.

5. The MRI apparatus of claim 4 wherein the computer is further programmed to calculate an unwrapped phase of the third point based on the wrapped phase of the third data point and the first phase accumulation between the first and second data points in order to determine a fourth data point.

6. The MRI apparatus of claim 5 wherein the computer is further programmed to determine a slope among the first, second, and fourth data points.

7. The MRI apparatus of claim 6 wherein determining the slope comprises the determining one of:

(A) a best fit line among the first, second, and fourth data points;

(B) a line generally connecting the first data point and the fourth data point; and

(C) a line generally connecting the second data point and the fourth data point.

8. The MRI apparatus of claim 6 wherein the computer is further programmed to determine a magnetic field inhomogeneity of a region of interest.

9. The MRI apparatus of claim 5 wherein the computer is further programmed to determine a second phase accumulation based on a spectrum shift resulting from an N- point Fourier Transform applied in a temporal direction over the first, second, and fourth data points; wherein N is an integer greater than 1.

10. The MRI apparatus of claim 9 wherein the computer is further programmed to determine the magnetic field inhomogeneity based on the second phase accumulation.

11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program comprising instructions which when executed by a computer cause the computer to:

locate a first point in a first magnetic resonance (MR) phase image acquired using a first echo time, TE 1 ; locate a second point in a second MR phase image acquired using a second echo time, TE 2 , such that the location of the second point in the second MR phase image and the location of the first point in the first MR phase image are substantially equal, wherein there is no phase wrapping between the first and second MR phase images, wherein TE 2 is greater than TE, 1 ;

locate a third point in a third MR phase image acquired using a third echo time, TE 3 , such that the location of the third point in the third MR phase image and the location of the second point in the second MR phase image are substantially equal, wherein there is phase wrapping between the second and third MR phase images, wherein TE 3 is greater than TE 2 ;

determine a magnetic field inhomogeneity of a point in an MR region of interest that corresponds with a phase of the first, second, and third point locations; and store the magnetic field inhomogeneity in computer memory.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein the locations of the first, second, and third point determine a first phase, a second phase, and a wrapped third phase, respectively.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12 having further instructions to cause the computer to determine a first change in phase between the first and second phases.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13 having further instructions to cause the computer to determine an unwrapped third phase from the first change in phase.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14 having further instructions to cause the computer to determine a rate of phase change among the first, second, and unwrapped third phases.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 having further instructions to cause the computer to generate a magnetic field map of the region of interest based in part on the rate of phase change.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14 having further instruction to cause the computer to:

input data into an N-point Fourier Transform, wherein the data comprises first, second, and unwrapped third phase information; and

execute the N-point Fourier Transform in a temporal direction to determine a spectrum shift.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the determination of the magnetic field inhomogeneity is based on the spectrum shift.

19. A method of determining phase accumulation among a series of magnetic resonance phase images comprising:

acquiring a first phase image using a first echo time (TE) time;

acquiring a second phase image using a second TE, wherein a first phase accumulation between the first and second phase images is greater than or equal to negative π and less than π, and wherein the second TE is larger than the first TE;

acquiring a third phase image at a third TE, wherein a second phase accumulation between the second and third phase images is one of a) greater than or equal to π, and b) less than negative π, and wherein the third TE is larger than the second TE; unwrapping the third phase image;

locating a first point in the first phase image, a second point in the second phase image, and a third point in the unwrapped third phase image that are in a same location; and

generating a magnetic field inhomogeneity map based on a cumulative phase accumulation over the first and second phase images and the unwrapped third phase image based on the first, second, and third points.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein unwrapping the third phase image comprises unwrapping the third phase image by using the first phase accumulation.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising determining the cumulative phase accumulation based on a rate of phase change among the first, second, and third points.

22. The method of claim 20 further comprising Fourier transforming in a temporal direction the first, second, and third points.