Multiecho water‐fat separation and simultaneous R estimation with multifrequency fat spectrum modeling

Multiecho chemical shift-based water-fat separation methods are seeing increasing clinical use due to their ability to estimate and correct for field inhomogeneities. Previous chemical shift-based water-fat separation methods used a relatively simple signal model that assumes both water and fat have a single resonant frequency. However, it is well known that fat has several spectral peaks. This inaccuracy in the signal model results in two undesired effects. First, water and fat are incompletely separated. Second, methods designed to estimate T(2) (*) in the presence of fat incorrectly estimate the T(2) (*) decay in tissues containing fat. In this work, a more accurate multifrequency model of fat is included…