Patent ID: 8494611

Claim:
A method of cardiac diagnostics of a patient, comprising: administering a stress test to the patient; acquiring a plurality of different views of MRI cine-loops of the heart of the patient at a plurality of heart rates the different views comprising some views associated with a first anatomical view at different heart rates induced by different doses of a stress-inducing substance and some views associated with different anatomical views at a substantially constant heart rate, wherein the MRI cine-loops are generated using multiple MRI images that highlight thickening of the myocardia and form the frames of the cine loops; temporally synchronizing the plurality of MRI cine loops with a processor; adjusting, with the processor, the plurality of temporally synchronized MRI cine loops based on a heart rate associated with respective ones of the MRI cines so as to compensate for differences in heart rate so that each MRI cine loop has the same duration; displaying a plurality of the adjusted MRI cine loops at a clinician workstation in substantially real-time while the patient is in an MRI scanner used for the acquiring step; allowing a clinician to electronically select at least one of the following on the clinician workstation: (a) at least one dose amount, (b) at least one view, and (c) at least one dose amount and at least one view to define the MRI cine loops for the displaying step; and evaluating the compensated MRI cine loops with the processor so as to assess a state of coronary physiology of the patient, wherein the cine loops are displayed during the stress test to allow a physician to assess cardiac physiology of a patent so as to adjust parameters of the test and/or avoid injury to the patient thereby providing safer cardiac stress testing.