Patent ID: 8866476

Claim:
A method of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of at least a portion of a body of a patient placed in an examination volume of an MR imaging device, the method comprising: subjecting the portion of the body to a first imaging sequence for acquiring a survey signal data set, which survey signal data set includes MR signals received in parallel or successively via a volume RF coil having an essentially homogeneous spatial sensitivity profile within the examination volume, and a set of at least two array RF coils having different spatial sensitivity profiles within the examination volume, wherein the first imaging sequence comprises RF pulses and switched magnetic field gradients controlled in such a manner that the survey signal data set is acquired at a first image resolution; subjecting the portion of the body to a second imaging sequence for acquiring a reference signal data set, which reference signal data set includes MR signals received in parallel via the array RF coils, wherein the second imaging sequence comprises RF pulses and switched magnetic field gradients controlled in such a manner that the reference signal data set is acquired at a second image resolution, which is higher than the first image resolution; subjecting the portion of the body to a third imaging sequence for acquiring a diagnostic signal data set, which diagnostic signal data set includes MR signals received in parallel via at least a subset of the set of array RF coils, wherein the third imaging sequence comprises RF pulses and switched magnetic field gradients controlled in such a manner that the diagnostic signal data set is acquired at a third image resolution, which is higher than the second image resolution; and reconstructing a diagnostic MR image from a combination of the diagnostic signal data set, the survey signal data set, and the reference signal data set and wherein spatial sensitivity profiles of the array RF coils are determined at the second image resolution from a combination of the survey signal data set and the reference signal data set, the diagnostic MR image being reconstructed from the diagnostic signal data set and from the spatial sensitivity profiles determined at the second resolution.