The invention relates to an upper body MRI scanner comprising a magnet arrangement for producing a horizontally oriented homogeneous main magnetic field, said magnet arrangement being designed to examine the upper body of a standing patient. An image acquisition unit is provided for continuously creating upper body image of the standing patient. A quality checking unit is designed for automatically determining a quality metric characterizing the quality of the upper body images. An imaging controller connected to the image acquisition unit and the quality checking unit is provided for activating the image acquisition unit and outputting signals for influencing the position and/or behavior of the patient as a function of the characteristic quality metric. An output unit connected to the image acquisition unit is used for displaying and/or storing at least some of the upper body images.
