Patent ID: 7315756

Claim:
A method for suppressing a contribution from flowing blood to a signal used for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of each of a plurality of slices at a site in a patient, within a predefined repetition time, comprising the steps of: (a) applying one of a non-selective inversion radio frequency (RF) pulse and a selective inversion RF pulse, followed by the other of the non-selective inversion RF pulse and the selective inversion RF pulse, said selective inversion RF pulse simultaneously inverting a magnetization for all of the plurality of slices to be imaged at the site within the predefined repetition time; (b) next, waiting a predefined inversion time calculated as a function of a number of slices to be imaged at the site within the predefined repetition time, wherein the predefined inversion time is determined so that each application of a sequence of RF pulses and magnetic field gradient pulses to read out a signal for imaging each successive selected single slice from the plurality of slices occurs at a time when magnetization of the flowing blood is substantially zero, wherein the signal for imaging each successive selected slice is acquired while the magnetization of the flowing blood is substantially zero for said slice; (c) next, executing the sequence of RF pulses and magnetic field gradient pulses to read out the signal for imaging and displaying a selected single slice from the plurality of slices; (d) then, waiting a predefined delay time calculated as a function of the number of slices to be imaged; and (e) repeating steps (a)-(d) in order to image and display each of the plurality of slices in succession, within the predefined repetition time, thereby enabling a clear visual evaluation of anatomic structures and pathologic tissues of interest in each of the selected single slices for diagnostic purposes, since each successive selected single slice is imaged while the magnetization of the flowing blood is substantially zero.