Acquiring contrast-enhanced, t1 weighted, cine magnetic resonance images

Abstract

A method of magnetic resonance imaging of anatomy that is subject to a movement cycle (e.g., the heart during a cardiac cycle), comprising: administering a magnetic resonance contrast agent; waiting a period of time until the contrast agent is effective to cause selected portions of the anatomy (e.g., macrotic cardiac tissue) to have a different Trecovery rate from that of other portions (normal cardiac tissue); administering a plurality of inversion recovery pulses spaced in time; acquiring image data at a data acquisition time that is spaced in time by a known time interval following an inversion recovery pulse; varying the time within the movement cycle at which the inversion recovery pulses are administered so that the associated data acquisition times are at a plurality of phases of the movement cycle; processing image data acquired at a phase of the movement cycle to produce at least a portion of an image frame at that phase; and performing the processing for a plurality of phases of the movement cycle to produce a plurality of image frames corresponding to a plurality of phases