Patent ID: 7615997

Claim:
A whole body magnetic resonance medical imaging system that excites multiple nuclei of a human subject through a single RF amplifier, comprising: a magnet that generates a main magnetic field in an examination region; a gradient coil that superimposes magnetic field gradients on the main magnetic field; a SENSE RF coil assembly having a plurality of RF coil elements including a first group of RF coil elements tuned for exciting resonance in a first isotope and a second group of coil elements tuned for exciting resonance in a second isotope, the second isotope being different from the first isotope; at least one transmitter that generates multi-nuclei excitation pulses with first and second frequency spectra associated with the first and second isotopes; a single amplifier that amplifies the multi-nuclei excitation pulses; and a splitter that separates excitation pulses associated with each of the first and second isotopes from the multi-nuclei excitation pulses and sends the individual excitation pulses to the first and second groups of RF coil elements.