Patent ID: 6639211
Filing Date: 2003-10-28
Classification: G01R

Abstract:
A method of magnetic resonance angiography comprising:(a) injecting a subject with a bolus of a magnetic resonance contrast agent upstream from a volume of interest; (b) exciting magnetic resonance in the volume of interest; (c) spatially encoding the excited resonance; (d) inducing spatially encoding magnetic resonance echoes, said echoes generating magnetic resonance signals; (e) continuously sampling a central region of k-space, creating a plurality of central data sets; (f) repeatedly reconstructing the central data sets into a series of low resolution images; (g) monitoring intensities from a portion of each low resolution image; (h) detecting the arrival of a leading edge of a bolus of the contrast agent within the volume of interest from the monitored low resolution image intensities; (i) after detecting the arrival of the leading edge of the bolus, sampling portions of k-space peripheral to the central portion of k-space, creating peripheral data sets; and, (j) reconstructing a magnetic resonance angiograph from (i) the central data set from the low resolution image in which the arrival of the bolus was detected, and (ii) the peripheral data sets collected after the detection of the bolus.