Altered phase-encoding order for reduced sensitivity to motion in three-dimensional MR imaging.

A method of reordering phase and slab encoding that can be used to address some of the inherent problems due to motion in three dimensional imaging is described and implemented. The method is shown to be more robust with respect to reducing artifacts resulting from several fundamental types of motion. It can be readily implemented on a standard magnetic resonance imager with essentially no increase in total imaging time. Results of simulations and phantom and in vivo experiments are presented.