ULTRA FAST MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR NON-CONTRAST AGENT MR ANGIOGRAPHY USING ELECTROCARDIOGRAPH OR PULSE TRIGGERED HALF FOURIER TURBO SPIN ECHO-BASED ACQUISITION WITH VARIABLE FLIP ANGLE EVOLUTION AND HIGH RESOLUTION

摘要

In a magnetic resonance imaging method for non-contrast imaging of blood at a region in the subject's body, a first 3D MR image is acquired represented by a first 3D volume data set of the region at a first trigger delay time. The first 3D image is acquired using a substantially 90° excitation pulse followed by a plurality of variable flip angle refocus pulses forming an echo train where the refocus pulses are smaller than or equal to 180°. To form the first 3D MR image, multiple MR slices are acquired related to the first trigger delay time to speed up the acquisition of the first image. A second 3D MR image is acquired represented by a second 3D volume data set at the same region using the same steps for acquiring the first 3D MR image except that a second trigger delay time is used which is different than the first trigger delay time. The first 3D volume data set and the second 3D volume data set are subtracted to create a third 3D volume data set. From the third 3D volume data set a 2D substantially maximum intensity projection data set is created which may then be displayed to show the blood at the region.