(NPW / PNW - Phase No Wrap) If the receiving RF coil is sensitive to tissue signal arising from outside the desired FOV, this undesired signal may be incorrectly mapped, or wrapped back to a location within the image and is seen as artifact. This problem occurs in the phase encoding direction, where the phases of signal-bearing tissues outside of the FOV in the y-direction are a replication of the phases that are encoded within the FOV.
A user-selectable parameter maps this signal to its correct location outside the FOV, then discards any signal from outside the FOV before displaying the image. No phase wrap works by filling k-space to the same extent, using twice as many phase encoding steps. In order to be able to choose this parameter, in most cases more than an average is necessary.

See Foldover Suppression and Oversampling.

A gradient system, which changes the readout gradient sinusoidally by connecting a capacitor to the self inductance generated by the gradient coil. Oscillating gradient systems were initially used in the development of EPI.
This electrical oscillating circuit can be driven with minimal power to generate the gradient amplitudes and switching frequencies required for echo planar imaging (EPI).
Disadvantages are that it is not possible to use any arbitrary trapezoidal gradient wave form as can be used in standard MRI. Also, the gradients are inflexible and cannot be used to create other ultrafast sequences and beside, nonlinear sampling of the MR signal is required.

(PE) The partial echo technique (also called fractional echo) is used to shorten the minimum echo time. By the acquisition of only a part of k-space data this technique benefits (like all partial Fourier techniques) from the complex conjugate symmetry between the k-space halves (this is called Hermitian symmetry).
The dephasing gradient in the frequency direction is reduced, and the duration of the readout gradient and the data acquisition window are shortened. Partial echo gives a better SNR at a given TE when a smaller FOV or thinner slices are selected, allows a longer sampling time, and a larger water fat shift (WFS, see also bandwidth) due to a lower gradient amplitude. The resolution is not affected. This is often used in gradient echo sequences (e.g. FLASH, Contrast Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Angiography) to reduce the echo time and yields a lower gradient moment. The disadvantage of using a partial echo can be a lower SNR, although this may be partly offset by the reduced echo time.
Also called Fractional Echo, Read Conjugate Symmetry, Single Side View.

See also Partial Fourier Technique and acronyms for 'partial echo' from different manufacturers.

Reconstruction of an image from a MR data set comprising an asymmetric sampling of k-space. For example, it can be used either to shorten image acquisition time, by reducing the number of phase encoding steps required, or to shorten the echo time, TE, by moving the echo off-center in the acquisition window. In either case the signal to noise ratio is reduced and the resolution can be improved to correspond to the maximum available resolution in the data.

The schematic figures of a pulse sequence timing diagram illustrate the steps of basic hardware activity that are incorporated into a pulse sequence. Time during sequence execution is indicated along the horizontal axes. Each line belongs to a different hardware component. One line is needed for the radio frequency transmitter and also one for each gradient (G_s = slice selection gradient x, G_f = phase encoding gradient y, G_f = frequency encoding gradient z, also called readout gradient).
In picture 1, a timing diagram for a 2D pulse sequence is shown.
Slice selection and signal detection are repeated in duration, relative timing and amplitude, each time the sequence is repeated. A single phase encoding component is present each time the sequence is executed.
Additional lines are added for ADC (Analog to Digital Converter) and sampling. A gradient pulse is shown as a deviation above or below the horizontal line. Simultaneous component activities such as the RF pulse and slice selection gradient are indicated as a non-zero deviation from both lines at the same horizontal position. Simple deviations from zero show constant amplitude gradient pulse. Gradient amplitudes that change during the measurement, e.g. phase encoding are represented as hatched regions.

The second picture shows a timing diagram for a 3D pulse sequence.
Volume excitation and signal detection are repeated in duration, relative timing and amplitude, each time the sequence is repeated. Two phase encoding components are present, one in the phase encoding direction and the other in slice selection direction (irrespectively incremented in amplitude) in each time the sequence is executed. A description of the comparison of hardware activity between different pulse sequences.