Patent ID: 6901282

Claim:
An apparatus for forming a magnetic resonance angiographic image of a human body comprising: means for applying a first plurality of spatially non-selective radio-frequency pulses to a first imaging volume of the human body; means for applying a first plurality of combinations of magnitude of phase-encoding gradients in slice-selective and in-plane directions through the first imaging volume of the human body in conjunction with application of the first plurality of spatially non-selective radio-frequency pulses; means for detecting first magnetic resonance imaging data from the first imaging volume of the human body based upon the first plurality of spatially non-seleqtive radio-frequency pulses and the applied first plurality of combinations of magnitude of phase-encoding gradients; means for identifying a location of a body portion of the human body within the first imaging volume based upon the detected first magnetic resonance imaging data; means for applying a second plurality of spatially non-selective radio-frequency pulses to a second imaging volume of the human body based upon the identified location of the body portion; means for applying a second plurality of combinations of magnitude of phase-encoding gradients in slice-selective and in-plane directions through the second imaging volume of the human body in conjunction with application of the second plurality of spatially non-selective radio-frequency pulses; means for detecting magnetic resonance imaging data from the second imaging volume of the human body based upon the second plurality of spatially non-selective radio-frequency pulses and second plurality of combinations of magnitude of phase-encoding gradients; and means for forming the magnetic resonance angiographic image of the second imaging volume.