Patent ID: 8274286

Claim:
A magnetic resonance (MRI) apparatus comprising: an MRI system having a plurality of gradient coils positioned about a bore of a magnet, and an RF transceiver system and an RF switch controlled by a pulse module to transmit RF signals to an RF coil assembly to acquire MR images; and a computer programmed to: calculate an MR pulse sequence comprising a plurality of RF pulses configured to excite spins in an imaging object and comprising a plurality of volume selection gradients; determine a plurality of distinct offset frequency values; for each respective determined offset frequency value, execute the MR pulse sequence having a central transmit frequency and a central receive frequency of the MR pulse sequence set to the respective determined offset frequency value; acquire a three-dimensional (3D) MR data set for each MR pulse sequence execution; and generate a composite image based on data from each of the acquired 3D MR data sets.