System and method for removing electromagnetic interference from low-field magnetic resonance images

1. A method, comprising:

projecting a low-field strength magnetic field toward an object of interest located within a field of view;

transmitting a radio frequency pulse sequence to a radio frequency coil assembly configured to selectively excite magnetization in the object of interest within the field of view, wherein the radio frequency pulse sequence defines a time of repetition and comprises a signal acquisition period within each time of repetition;

receiving an output signal from the radio frequency coil assembly during the signal acquisition period;

receiving a sample signal from the radio frequency coil assembly at an interference period within the time of repetition, wherein the interference period flanks the signal acquisition period, wherein the interference period comprises a pair of interference periods flanking the signal acquisition period, wherein the pair of interference periods comprises a first interference period and a second interference period, wherein the first interference period and the second interference period are symmetric with respect to the signal acquisition period therebetween, and wherein the sample signal comprises a first sample signal received in the first interference period and a second sample signal received in the second interference period;

comparing the output signal and the sample signal to identify an interference component, wherein comparing the output signal to the sample signal to identify the interference component comprises comparing the first sample signal to the second sample signal to identify interference arising during both the first sample signal and the second sample signal;

adjusting the output signal based on the interference component; and

recording the adjusted output signal in a k-space matrix.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein comparing the output signal and the sample signal to identify the interference component comprises performing a Fourier transform computation on the output signal and the sample signal.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the interference component comprises undesirable frequency components in the Fourier transformed sample signal.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein adjusting the output signal based on the interference component comprises:

subtracting the undesirable frequency components from the Fourier transformed output signal to determine desirable frequency components; and

performing a Fourier transform inversion computation on the desirable frequency components.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the radio frequency coil assembly comprises a coil array comprising a plurality of radio frequency coil components, wherein the radio frequency pulse sequence further comprises, for each radio frequency coil component, a component signal acquisition period and a component interference period, and wherein the method further comprises, for each component signal acquisition period:

receiving the output signal from each radio frequency coil component during the component signal acquisition period;

receiving the sample signal from each radio frequency coil component at the component interference period;

comparing the output signal and the sample signal for each radio frequency coil component to identify the interference component;

adjusting the output signal based on the interference component for each radio frequency coil component; and

recording the adjusted output signal in the k-space matrix for each radio frequency coil component.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the low-field strength magnetic field comprises a homogeneity between 1000 and 20,000 ppm.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the low-field strength magnetic field comprises a heterogeneous field.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the low-field strength magnetic field comprises a field strength of less than 1 T.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the signal acquisition period is less than 3 ms.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the radio frequency pulse sequence comprises a multi-echo pulse sequence.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the radio frequency pulse sequence comprises applying a phase encoding gradient along a first gradient within the time of repetition, and wherein the phase encoding gradient temporally overlaps the interference period.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the radio frequency pulse sequence comprises applying a phase encoding gradient along a first gradient and a second gradient within the time of repetition, wherein the first gradient and the second gradient are orthogonal, and wherein the phase encoding gradients temporally overlap the interference period.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the radio frequency pulse sequence comprises at least one gradient episode coincident with the interference period, and wherein the at least one gradient episode is selected from a list of gradients consisting of a frequency encoding gradient, a prewinding gradient, and a postwinding gradient.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein a plurality of gradient episodes are coincident with the interference period.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the radio frequency pule sequence comprises applying one or more than one gradient episode within the time of repetition, and wherein the one or more than one gradient episode is not applied while receiving the sample signal.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating a magnetic resonance image from the k-space matrix.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the radio frequency coil assembly comprises a multi-channel transmit-and-receive coil array.