The collection of more data points on one side of the k-space origin than on the other. With fewer k-space data points prior to the center (echo) a shorter echo time can be attained. Asymmetric acquisition in any phase encoding direction followed by partial-Fourier reconstruction leads to a reduction in imaging time.

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.