Patent ID: 7359535

Claim:
A method for retrospective internal gating comprising: acquiring images at multiple z-locations z 1 . . . zn and at different times t 1 . . . tn at each of the z-locations to obtain a plurality of acquired image sets, each acquired image set including only the images acquired at a single one of the z-locations; designating one of the images in a temporal sequence t 1 . . . tn at one of the z-locations as a reference image; determine a closest image in which motion of an organ is minimal with respect to a position of the organ in the reference image, the closest image being an image in the temporal sequence t 1 . . . tn at a z-location adjacent the z-location of the reference image; and reordering the images within at least one of the acquired image sets to obtain at least one synchronized image set that includes at least two images that appear to have been acquired contemporaneously, each synchronized image set including only the images acquired at a single one of the z-locations.