Patent ID: 7239137

Claim:
A magnetic resonance (MR) imaging apparatus comprising: a plurality of gradient coils positioned about a bore of a magnet to impress a polarizing magnetic field and an 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: define a fast spin echo (FSE) pulse sequence to acquire MR data from a subject; apply the FSE pulse sequence without phase encoding to acquire echo data from a non-phase encoded echo train; analyze a phase profile of a M th echo of the non-phase encoded echo train with a phase profile of an (M+N) th echo of the non-phase encoded echo train, wherein N>1; determine phases of RF refocusing pulses and adjustments to an area of a readout prephaser gradient of the FSE pulse sequence from the analysis; and apply the FSE pulse sequence with phase encoding to acquire echo data from a phase encoded echo train.