Patent ID: 7285955

Claim:
An MRI system for acquiring MRI image data from an object, the MRI system comprising: a) an MRI device for generating a uniform magnetic field through the object, magnetic field gradients for imaging a portion of the object and an RF excitation field for evoking NMR response signals from the object; b) a computing device for controlling the operation of the MRI system; and c) interface circuitry for receiving instructions from the computing device and generating waveforms in response to the instructions and sending the waveforms to the MRI device for producing the magnetic field gradients and the RF excitation field, the interface circuitry being configured to generate the waveforms and sample the NMR response signals according to a spiral-PR k-space trajectory having a plurality of angular sectors, wherein a given angular sector is defined by a sampling function having a period that defines radial sampling density and an envelope function that defines the angular extent of the angular sector.