Patent ID: 7863895

Claim:
A system to acquire data in a single magnetic resonant imaging (MRI) scan, the system comprising: an MRI device adapted to provide an MRI scan of a subject; a controller associated with the MRI device to control the scanning of the MRI device; memory associated with the controller and having program product stored therein, the program product operating to perform the steps of: (a) initiating an initial dephasing gradient pulse along a readout gradient axis prior in time to an occurrence of a first radio frequency (RF) refocus pulse being initiated along an RF axis, the initial dephasing gradient pulse having a first gradient area defined by the product of an amplitude of the dephasing pulse and a time duration of the dephasing pulse, (b) initiating a plurality of readout gradient pulses later in time than the first RF refocus pulse and prior in time to a second RF refocus pulse, the lapse of time between the first RF refocus pulse and the second RF refocus pulse defining an echo spacing (esp) time period, each of the plurality of readout gradient pulses having a second gradient area also defined by the product of an amplitude of the readout gradient pulse and a time duration of the same readout gradient pulse, an absolute value of the second gradient area being equal to about two times the first gradient area, and (c) collecting a plurality of echo signals during the esp time period responsive to the plurality of readout gradient pulses, each of the plurality of echo signals corresponding to one of the plurality of readout gradient pulses; and a display responsive to the controller to display one or more magnetic resonant images.