Patent ID: 8594400

Claim:
An magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus comprising: an MR system having a plurality of gradient coils positioned about a bore of a magnet, and an radio-frequency (RF) transceiver system and an RF switch controlled by a pulse module to transmit RF signals to an RF coil assembly to acquire MR images; and a computer programmed to automatically: (A) initiate a first scan procedure to acquire MR data from an object and locate a feature of interest of the object, wherein the first scan procedure comprises: a first plurality of scan table motion commands; and a first plurality of scan data acquisition commands; (B) initiate a second scan procedure different than the first scan procedure, wherein the second scan procedure comprises: a second plurality of scan table motion commands; and a second plurality of scan data acquisition commands to acquire MR data from the feature of interest; (C) determine an anomaly of the feature of interest; (D) initiate a third scan procedure different than the first and second scan procedures to scan the anomaly, wherein the third scan procedure comprises: a third plurality of scan table motion commands; and a third plurality of scan data acquisition commands to acquire MR data from the located anomaly; and (E) reconstruct an image of the located anomaly.