Patent ID: 7309986

Claim:
A method of magnetic resonance imaging an object in the presence of a permanent background gradient, G 0 , in the polarizing field, B 0 , comprising: selecting a 2-dimensional slice of the object for excitation that is not perpendicular to G 0 ; exciting the selected 2-dimensional slice of the object by applying a selective RF-pulse in the presence of a slice selection gradient G ss , where G ss is a linear combination of G 0 and a transverse gradient G ss app , generated as a linear combination of basic gradient fields G 1 , G 2 provided by a magnetic resonance scanner; applying a readout gradient G re where G re is a linear combination of G 0 and a transverse gradient G re app generated as a linear combination of G 1 , G 2 , where G ss and G re are not parallel at any point in the selected excited slice; and reconstructing the selected excited slice of the object.