During
frequency encoding, fat protons
precess slower than water protons in the same
slice because of their
magnetic shielding. Through the difference in
resonance frequency between water and fat, protons at the same location are misregistrated (dislocated) by the
Fourier transformation, when converting
MRI signals from
frequency to spatial domain. This
chemical shift misregistration cause accentuation of any fat-water interfaces along the
frequency axis and may be mistaken for pathology. Where fat and water are in the same location, this
artifact can be seen as a bright or dark band at the edge of the anatomy.
Protons in fat and water molecules are separated by a
chemical shift of about 3.5 ppm. The actual shift in
Hertz (Hz) depends on the magnetic
field strength of the
magnet being used. Higher
field strength increases the misregistration, while in
contrast a higher
gradient strength has a
positive effect. For a 0.3 T system operating at 12.8 MHz the shift will be 44.8 Hz compared with a 223.6 Hz shift for a 1.5 T system operating at 63.9 MHz.