Abstract: In a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus, a subject is disposed in an imaging region (10). A magnet assembly (16, 18) creates a main magnetic field (Bo) through the imaging region (10). A sequence of radio frequency pulses and gradient field manipulations excites and manipulates magnetic resonance within dipoles of the subject. The sequence comprises a 90° RF excitation pulse and a 180° refocusing pulse as is known in the art of standard spin echo imaging. The sequence includes gradient pulses that induce at least two gradient recalled RF echoes (98, 100) while suppressing spin echo signals. The sequence also includes diffusion sensitive gradients (76, 82) that sense the movement of water or other molecules during the imaging sequence. The gradient induced echoes (98, 100) are symmetrically disposed about a time (TE).

Abstract: A radio frequency coil (12, 19) adapted for use in interventional magnetic resonance imaging consists of a loop of an elongated electric conductor arranged to form a twisted wire pair (12, 19) and means associated with it for operating the coil both in transmit and receive mode, in order that the coil does not image anything but tracks its own path on an MR image, without affecting the magnetization in the main bulk of the body being imaged.

Abstract: A three dimensional magnetic resonance imaging technique is utilized to generate 1/Nth of a complete data set from a first selected slab (38a). The data set is complete in a read direction and a first phase encode direction and 1/Nth complete in a second phase encode direction. The selected slab is shifted by 1/Nth its dimension in the second phase encode direction and another 1/Nth complete data set is generated. This process is repeated until N data sets are generated. The N data sets are reconstructed into a slice image which slice images are stacked in a three dimensional final image memory (94) and which are projected (96) along a selected projection direction into a projection image (40). The process is repeated with each new data set replacing the oldest data set in memories (84.sub.1, 84.sub.2 . . .) to generate a stack of slice images which are projected into the projection image. At any time during the process, projection direction can be changed and the sliced data reprojected.