Patent ID: 8159221

Claim:
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus comprising: a data acquisition unit configured to acquire magnetic resonance data according to an imaging condition for obtaining a steady state free precession of nuclear magnetic spins in flowing matter in an object by applying plural excitation pulses having a same flip angle with a constant repetition time and gradient magnetic fields to the object; and an image generating unit configured to generate an image of the flowing matter based on the magnetic resonance data, wherein respective zero order moments of: (a) gradient magnetic field within the repetition time, (b) a gradient magnetic field pulse for slice selection from each application time of the plural excitation pulses until a center time of a corresponding echo, (c) a gradient magnetic field pulse for readout from each application time of the plural excitation pulses until the center time of a corresponding echo, (d) the gradient magnetic field pulse for slice selection from the center time of each echo until an application time of a following excitation pulse, and (e) the gradient magnetic field for readout from a center time of each echo until an application time of a following excitation pulse are all zero, while a first order moment of the gradient magnetic field pulse for readout within the repetition time is nonzero by having an asymmetric pulse shape about the center of the pulse shape on the time axis.