Patent ID: 7454241

Claim:
A method for cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, the method comprising the following steps: A) monitoring the ECG of a patient and detecting the occurrence of R-waves in the ECG; B) acquiring a plurality of phase encoded MR signals per cardiac cycle by subjecting the patient to a sequence of RF pulses and magnetic field gradient pulses; C) reconstructing an MR image from at least a part of the MR signals acquired in step B); wherein the ECG of the patient is monitored continuously during acquisition of MR signals in step B), wherein MR signals used for image reconstruction in step C) are retrospectively selected depending on the time interval between successive R-waves; wherein the MR signals are acquired over a plurality of cardiac cycles; wherein the acquisition of MR signals for each cardiac cycle begins after a delay period in an early diastolic phase of the cardiac cycle after detection of an R-wave and continues until the next R-wave is detected; wherein the delay period is adapted in accordance with the actually detected duration of the interval between successive R-waves.