Patent Document ID: 8326399
Application ID: 12576917
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for performing a medical examination of a volume to be imaged, the volume to be imaged including a first axis, a second axis perpendicular to the first axis, and a third axis perpendicular to the first axis and the second axis, a first direction being parallel to the first axis, a second direction being parallel to the second axis, and a third direction being parallel to the third axis, said method comprising: selecting at least two planes through a center of k-space, the at least two planes being perpendicular to a reference plane that extends in the first direction and the second direction; selecting a plurality of phase encode locations on the at least two planes; acquiring at least two datasets corresponding to the at least two planes, each dataset of the at least two datasets including data acquired at each phase encode location of the plurality of phase encode locations by: applying a first gradient and a second gradient to move through the k-space to a desired phase encode location of the plurality of phase encode locations, the first gradient being in the first direction and the second gradient being in the second direction such that second gradient is perpendicular to the first gradient; and applying a third gradient in the third direction to acquire data at the desired phase encode location, the third gradient being perpendicular to the first gradient and the second gradient; reconstructing the at least two datasets to generate at least one image; and outputting the at least one image.