Description of parallel imaging in MRI using multiple coils.

A general formulation for parallel imaging using multiple coils is derived from the Fourier transform of coil sensitivity functions. This formulation provides a unified account for developed parallel imaging techniques such as subencoding, simultaneous acquisition of spatial harmonics (SMASH), and sensitivity encoding (SENSE), and indicates a guideline for coil configuration and k-space sampling in parallel imaging. The views that can be acquired simultaneously in parallel imaging have to be contained in the spatial frequency band of coil sensitivity functions.