Patent Document ID: 7991452
Application ID: 11966237
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for producing a contrast enhanced image of a subject positioned in the field of view (FOV) of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, the steps comprising: a) acquiring with the MRI system a set of phase contrast views of the subject positioned in the FOV; b) reconstructing a phase contrast composite image from the phase contrast views which indicates a motion value at each composite image pixel of the subject positioned in the FOV; c) acquiring with the MRI system a set of mask views; d) acquiring with the MRI system a time frame data set comprised of an undersampled set of contrast enhanced views of the subject positioned in the FOV after the arrival of the contrast agent; e) repeating step d) to acquire a plurality of time frame data sets during the in flow of contrast agent into the FOV; f) subtracting mask views from the contrast enhanced views to obtain sparse contrast enhanced views for each time frame; and g) performing a highly constrained projection (HYPR) reconstruction to produce a contrast enhanced image of the subject for each time frame using both the sparse contrast enhanced views for the time frame and the phase contrast composite image.