Robust multipoint water‐fat separation using fat likelihood analysis

Fat suppression is an essential part of routine MRI scanning. Multiecho chemical‐shift based water‐fat separation methods estimate and correct for Bo field inhomogeneity. However, they must contend with the intrinsic challenge of water‐fat ambiguity that can result in water‐fat swapping. This problem arises because the signals from two chemical species, when both are modeled as a single discrete spectral peak, may appear indistinguishable in the presence of Bo off‐resonance. In conventional methods, the water‐fat ambiguity is typically removed by enforcing field map smoothness using region growing based algorithms. In reality, the fat spectrum has multiple spectral peaks. Using this spectral complexity, we introduce a novel concept that identifies water and fat for multiecho acquisitions by exploiting the spectral differences between water and fat. A fat likelihood map is produced to indicate if a pixel is likely to be water‐dominant or fat‐dominant by comparing the fitting residuals of two different signal models. The fat likelihood analysis and field map smoothness provide complementary information, and we designed an algorithm (Fat Likelihood Analysis for Multiecho Signals) to exploit both mechanisms. It is demonstrated in a wide variety of data that the Fat Likelihood Analysis for Multiecho Signals algorithm offers highly robust water‐fat separation for 6‐echo acquisitions, particularly in some previously challenging applications. Magn Reson Med, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.