(FT) The Fourier transformation is a mathematical procedure to separate out the frequency components of a signal from its amplitudes as a function of time, or the inverse Fourier transformation (IFT) calculates the time domain from the frequency domain. The FT is used to generate the spectrum from the free induction decay or spin echo in the pulse MR technique and is essential to most MR imaging techniques. The Fourier transformation can be generalized to multiple dimensions, e.g. to relate an image to its corresponding k-space representation, or to include chemical shift information in some chemical shift imaging techniques. Fourier transformation analysis allows spatial information to be reconstructed from the raw data.
(BW) Bandwidth is a measure of frequency range, the range between the highest and lowest frequency allowed in the signal. For analog signals, which can be mathematically viewed as a function of time, bandwidth is the width, measured in Hertz of a frequency range in which the signal's Fouriertransform is nonzero.
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The receiver (or acquisition) bandwidth (rBW) is the range of frequencies accepted by the receiver to sample the MR signal. The receiver bandwidth is changeable (see also acronyms for 'bandwidth' from different manufacturers) and has a direct relationship to the signal to noise ratio (SNR) (SNR = 1/squareroot (rBW). The bandwidth depends on the readout (or frequency encoding) gradient strength and the data sampling rate (or dwell time).
Bandwidth is defined by BW = Sampling Rate/Number of Samples.
A smaller bandwidth improves SNR, but can cause spatial distortions, also increases the chemical shift. A larger bandwidth reduces SNR (more noise from the outskirts of the spectrum), but allows faster imaging.
A higher bandwidth is used for the reduction of chemical shift artifacts (lower bandwidth - more chemical shift - longer dwell time - but better signal to noise ratio). Narrow receive bandwidths accentuate this water fat shift by assigning a smaller number of frequencies across the MRI image. This effect is much more significant on higher field strengths. At 1.5 T, fat and water precess 220 Hz apart, which results in a higher shift than in Low Field MRI.
Lower bandwidth (measured in Hz) = higher water fat shift (measured in pixel shift).
Measure of resolution (lp/mm or lp/cm).
A dimension of the Fouriertransformation space (k-space representation of an image), having units of inverse distance. Higher values of spatial frequencies correspond to finer detail in the image.