Patent ID: 8274285

Claim:
A MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) method comprising: subjecting a sample to a chimera steady-state free precession (ch-SSFP) protocol, said ch-SSFP protocol comprising a sequence of two alternating TR-intervals, wherein one of said two TR-intervals is a nb-SSFP TR interval which comprises dephasing spin isochromats to create a non-balanced steady-state free precession (nb-SSFP), wherein another of said two TR-intervals is a b-SSFP TR interval which comprises rephasing spin isochromats to create a balanced steady-state free precession (b-SSFP), wherein said ch-SSFP has a frequency response profile during the b-SSFP TR interval, which correlates an amplitude and/or phase to a frequency, and wherein the amplitude and/or phase is altered by frequency changes resulting from said sample.