Patent ID: 8620404

Claim:
A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system comprising: a magnet system configured to generate a polarizing magnetic field about at least a portion of a subject arranged in the MRI system; a plurality of gradient coils configured to apply a gradient field to the polarizing magnetic field along each of at least three directions; a radio frequency (RF) system configured to apply an excitation field to the subject and acquire MR image data therefrom; a computer system programmed to: acquire a time series of two-dimensional (2D) data sets from a portion of the subject using the plurality of gradient coils and RF system; reconstruct the time series of 2D data sets into a 2D time series of images having a given frame rate; acquire a time-independent, 3D volume of at least the portion of the subject; and replicate the 2D time series of images to form 3D image frames; and multiply the 3D image frames by the time-independent 3D volume of the subject to generate a set of time-dependent 3D volume images of the portion of the subject at the given frame rate.