Patent ID: 7358731

Claim:
A method of magnetic resonance imaging comprising: (a) applying a prescan sequence including: (a1) excitation of nuclear magnetic resonance within an examination volume by a sequence of RF pulses and switched magnetic field gradients, the sequence including RF pulses with at least two different excitation flip angles; (a2) acquiring magnetic resonance signals from said examination volume; (a3) processing said magnetic resonance signals so as to form at least two magnetic resonance images each of the at least two magnetic resonance images corresponding to one of said at least two different excitation flip angles; (a4) computing spatial sensitivity profiles for pixels or voxels of said magnetic resonance images based upon a dependence of values of the pixels or voxels on their respective excitation flip angles; (b) subsequent to step (a), applying an additional diagnostic scan sequence that is independent and separate from the prescan sequence of step (a) to generate additional diagnostic magnetic resonance signals; (c) processing the additional diagnostic resonance signals using the computed sensitivity profiles into diagnostic images; wherein a resolution of the magnetic resonance images formed during said prescan sequence is coarse as compared to diagnostic images formed during said additional diagnostic scan sequence which follows the prescan sequence.