Systems and methods are described for phase-sensitive magnetic resonance
imaging using an efficient and robust phase correction algorithm. A
method includes obtaining a plurality of MRI data signals, such as
two-point Dixon data, one-point Dixon data, or inversion recovery
prepared data. The method further includes implementing a
phase-correction algorithm, that may use phase gradients between the
neighboring pixels of an image. At each step of the region growing, the
method uses both the amplitude and phase of pixels surrounding a seed
pixel to determine the correct orientation of the signal for the seed
pixel. The method also includes using correlative information between
images from different coils to ensure coil-to-coil consistency, and using
correlative information between two neighboring slices to ensure
slice-to-slice consistency. A system includes a MRI scanner to obtain the
data signals, a controller to reconstruct the images from the data
signals and implement the phase-correction algorithm, and an output
device to display phase sensitive MR images such as fat-only images
and/or water-only images.