A three-dimensional turbo spin echo imaging method of applying, within a repetition time TR, N groups of pulses to respectively scan N slabs in succession, with each group including one excitation pulse and more than one refocusing pulse, wherein N is a positive integer greater than 1, is improved by applying a first slice selection gradient at the same time as applying each said excitation pulse, and applying a second slice selection gradient at the same time as applying each said refocusing pulse, and applying a phase encoding gradient after having applied each refocusing pulse, then applying a frequency encoding gradient and acquiring scan signals during the duration of the frequency encoding gradient. An image according to the scan signals is reconstructed.