(PC) Phase contrast sequences are the basis of MRA techniques utilizing the change in the phase shifts of the flowing protons in the region of interest to create an image. Spins that are moving along the direction of a magnetic field gradient receive a phase shift proportional to their velocity.
In a phase contrast sequence two data sets with a different amount of flow sensitivity are acquired. This is usually accomplished by applying gradient pairs, which sequentially dephase and then rephase spins during the sequence. Both 2D and 3D acquisition techniques can be applied with phase contrast MRA.
The first data set is acquired with a flow compensated sequence, i. e. without flow sensitivity. The second data set is acquired with a flow sensitive sequence. The amount of flow sensitivity is controlled by the strength of the bipolar gradient pulse pair, which is incorporated into the sequence. Stationary tissue undergoes no effective phase change after the application of the two gradients. Caused by the different spatial localization of flowing blood to stationary tissue, it experiences a different size of the second bipolar gradient compared to the first. The result is a phase shift.
The raw data from the two data sets are subtracted. By comparing the phase of signals from each location in the two sequences the exact amount of motion induced phase change can be determined to have a map where pixel brightness is proportional to spatial velocity.
Phase contrast images represent the signal intensity of the velocity of spins at each point within the field of view. Regions that are stationary remain black while moving regions are represented as grey to white.
The phase shift is proportional to the spin's velocity, and this allows the quantitative assessment of flow velocities. The difference MRI signal has a maximum value for opposite directions. This velocity is typically referred to as venc, and depends on the pulse amplitude and distance between the gradient pulse pair. For velocities larger than venc the difference signal is decreased constantly until it gets zero. Therefore, in a phase contrast angiography it is important to correctly set the venc of the sequence to the maximum flow velocity which is expected during the measurement. High venc factors of the PC angiogram (more than 40 cm/sec) will selectively image the arteries (PCA - arteriography), whereas a venc factor of 20 cm/sec will perform the veins and sinuses (PCV or MRV - venography).

See also Flow Quantification, Contrast Enhanced MR Venography, Time of Flight Angiography, Time Resolved Imaging of Contrast Kinetics.

(Gφ) The phase encoding gradient is a magnetic field gradient that allows the encoding of the spatial signal location along a second dimension by different spin phases. The phase encoding gradient is applied after slice selection and excitation (before the frequency encoding gradient), orthogonally to the other two gradients. The spatial resolution is directly related to the number of phase encoding steps (gradients).

Parts of the body, which extend beyond the Field of view in the phase encoding direction may still be visible in the image as artifacts.
Please note that aliasing in the frequency direction is also possible but can be eliminated in the same manner or by applying frequency specific filters to the received signal.

See Aliasing Artifact.

The phase conjugate symmetry benefits from the symmetry (see also Hermitian symmetry) of the raw data in k-space and is used to reduce the data acquisition time by acquiring only a part of k-space data.

See also Partial Fourier Technique, Partial Averaging and acronyms for 'phase conjugate symmetry' from different manufacturers.

Detector that detects the phase of the signal relative to the phase of a reference oscillator. Phase sensitive detectors are used in MR transmitters (where they form part of the frequency synthesis pathway) and MR receivers (where they are used to down-convert the MR signal to audio-frequencies prior to digitization). This device type includes modulators, demodulators and mixers.

See Quadrature Detector.