Recovery of phase inconsistencies in continuously moving table extended field of view magnetic resonance imaging acquisitions.

MR images formed using extended FOV continuously moving table data acquisition can have signal falloff and loss of lateral spatial resolution at localized, periodic positions along the direction of table motion. In this work we identify the origin of these artifacts and provide a means for correction. The artifacts are due to a mismatch of the phase of signals acquired from contiguous sampling fields of view and are most pronounced when the central k-space views are being sampled. Correction can be performed using the phase information from a periodically sampled central view to adjust the phase of all other views of that view cycle, making the net phase uniform across each axial plane. Results from experimental phantom and contrast-enhanced peripheral MRA studies show that the correction technique substantially eliminates the artifact for a variety of phase encode orders. Copyright (c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.