Patent Document ID: 9739857
Application ID: 14154364
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for echo planar magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, comprising: operating an MR data acquisition unit, in which a subject is situated, to acquire MR raw data from the subject in an echo planar MR imaging sequence including, in said echo planar MR imaging sequence, radiating a radio-frequency (RF) pulse that produces a transverse magnetization of nuclear spins in the subject, said transverse magnetization of said nuclear spins exhibiting a phase; operating said MR data acquisition unit in said echo planar MR imaging sequence to also apply a sequence of readout gradient fields configured with alternating positive and negative values, and to apply a sequence of phase encoding gradient fields configured to have only positive values that vary as a function of time and that continuously increase the phase of the transverse magnetization as a function of time, or to have only negative values that vary as a function of time and that continuously decrease the phase of the transverse magnetization as a function of time, wherein applying said sequence of readout gradient fields and applying said sequence of phase encoding gradient fields produces a zigzag-type trajectory for entering MR raw data into an electronic memory organized as k-space; operating said MR data acquisition unit in said echo planar MR imaging sequence to acquire said MR raw data representing gradient echoes resulting from said transverse magnetization, while applying said sequence of readout gradient fields and said sequence of phase encoding gradient fields, and entering the acquired MR raw data into k-space along said zigzag-type trajectory; and via a processor having access to said memory, making the MR raw data in k-space available in electronic form as a data file.