Patent ID: 8125222

Claim:
A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus comprising: a storage unit containing MRI scanning definition information that defines a method for creating scanning conditions for a preparation scan from scanning conditions set for a main scan for each of plural different types of scanning; a definition-information acquiring unit that acquires scanning definition information corresponding to a particular one of said different types of a main scan from among scanning definition information stored by the storage unit; a preparation-scan condition creating unit that generates data representing scanning conditions for a preparation scan from said scanning definition information for a main scan acquired by the definition-information acquiring unit; a preparation-scan control unit that causes execution of a preparation scan based on said scanning conditions for the preparation scan generated by the preparation-scan condition creating unit; a main-scan condition setting unit that sets values of at least some scanning parameters for a main scan based on a scan result obtained by executing the preparation scan by the preparation-scan control unit; and a main-scan control unit that causes execution of a main scan based on scanning conditions for the main scan that includes the scanning parameters set by the main-scan condition setting unit.