Patent ID: 7683614

Claim:
A method of magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) comprising the steps of: a) placing an object to be imaged in a magnetic field aligned along an axis (z); b) exciting nuclei in said object to excite desired spectral components for imaging; c) encoding the NMR signal from said object in one spectral dimension and in up to 3 spatial dimensions (X,Y,Z) using magnetic field gradient pulses; d) acquiring equally spaced spectral data points using a receiver with a dwell time that defines a desired maximum spectral width, said maximum spectral width being smaller than the maximum frequency separation between said spectral components, resulting in spectral aliasing; e) iteratively increasing said receiver dwell time using a desired step size until the spectral separation of any two of said spectral components exceeds a desired minimum spectral separation; f) detecting said spectral data points; and g) reconstructing said spectral data points into a set of spatially localized spectra.