Patent ID: 8334691

Claim:
An ultra fast magnetic resonance imaging method for non-contrast imaging of blood at a region in a subject's body, comprising the steps of: acquiring a first 3D MR image represented by a first 3D volume data set in a computer of said region at a first trigger delay time based on one of a substantially maximum or a substantially minimum blood flow at a first heart trigger event, and to acquire said first 3D image using a turbo spin echo acquisition comprising a substantially 90° excitation pulse followed by a plurality of variable flip angle refocus pulses forming an echo train where all of the refocus pulses are smaller than 180° so as to lower specific absorption rate at said region in the subject, said refocus pulses being non-selective to reduce echo spacing time between said refocus pulses, and to form said first 3D MR image acquiring multiple MR slice images of said region for said first heart trigger event to speed up said acquisition of the first image; acquiring a second 3D MR image represented by a second 3D volume data set in said computer at said same region using the same steps for acquiring said first 3D MR image except that a second trigger delay time based on the other of the substantially maximum or the substantially minimum blood flow at a second heart trigger event is used which is different than said first trigger delay time; with said computer subtracting the first 3D volume data set from the second 3D volume data set, or subtracting the second 3D volume data set from the first 3D volume data set, to create a third 3D volume data set in said computer; with said computer creating from the third 3D volume data set a 2D substantially maximum intensity projection data set; and displaying the 2D substantially maximum intensity projection data set on a display screen to show an image containing the blood at said region.