Patent ID: 7259559

Claim:
A coil element selection method of a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus for generating a magnetic resonance image based on magnetic resonance signals emitted from a site being imaged of a subject through a phased array coil to be mounted onto the subject and having a plurality of coil elements embedded, said method comprising: a low resolution imaging step for imaging at a low resolution by using the plurality of coil elements to generate a plurality of low resolution images; displaying the plurality of low resolution images on a coil element selection display screen of a display unit; an imaging coil element selection step for selecting on the coil element selection display screen, by an operator, at least one coil element for the site to be imaged, said selection based on the plurality of low resolution images taken in said low resolution imaging step; and a coil element extraction step for extracting the at least one coil element selected in said imaging coil element selection step.