Post-acquisition adaptive reconstruction of MRI data

1. A method for storing image data for reconstruction of MRI images, the method comprising the following steps:

a. acquiring k-space data through magnetic resonance imaging including performing a radial acquisition of k-space data at continuously incrementing angles over a predetermined time, and collecting a corresponding portion of k-space data for each radial arm of k-space data is per RF excitation during a selected time interval;

b. performing an inverse Fourier transform on a selected subset of the k-space data of the scan to form an intermediate image;

c. saving the intermediate image in a standard format;

d. repeating steps a through c until the subsets of k-space data for an entire scan is stored in a corresponding intermediate images; and

e. storing the saved intermediate images in a storage medium wherein the images can be retrieved and summed to reconstruct the image of the scan.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subset of k-space data comprises at least one of single point of k-space data, an individual line of k-space data from a radially symmetric acquisition scheme, a blade from a PROPELLER pulse sequence, a single line of k-space data from a rectilinear acquisition, and a line segment.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein step d comprises staring the images in a picture archive and communications system (PACS).

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of wherein the intermediate images are stored in a data storage medium in a vendor independent and machine independent retrievable data format.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the data format is DICOM.

6. A method of post-acquisition reconstruction of an image from magnetic resonance data using an intermediate step of partially reconstructed images, the method comprising:

a. acquiring k-space data through magnetic resonance imaging including performing a radial acquisition of k-space data at continuously incrementing angles over a predetermined time, and collecting a corresponding portion of k-space data for each radial arm of k-space data is per RF excitation during a selected time interval;

b. performing an inverse Fourier transform on selected portions of the k-space data to construct corresponding intermediate images;

c. storing the intermediate images in a data storage medium,

d. retrieving a plurality of intermediate images and constructing a selected view by summing the plurality of intermediate images.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the stored intermediate images are retrieved and the final viewable image is constructed at a workstation.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein an operator selects at least one of a spatial resolution, a temporal resolution, a spatial distribution and a temporal distribution for constructing the final image.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein step d further comprises the step of providing a search function for selectively searching the intermediate images for data having a specific data content.

10. A method of post-acquisition reconstruction of partial k-space data into intermediate images comprising:

(a) acquiring a portion of k-space data of a selected image including performing a radial acquisition of k-space data at continuously incrementing angles over a predetermined time, and collecting a corresponding portion of k-space data for each radial arm of k-space data is per RF excitation during a selected time interval;

(b) applying an inverse Fourier transform to the portion of the k-space data to form an intermediate image;

(c) storing the intermediate image in a data storage medium in a vendor independent and machine independent format, and repeating steps a though c until intermediate images are stored for all portions of k-space of the selected image;

(d) retrieving and reconstructing a reconstructed image using a plurality of the intermediate images.

11. The method as recited in claim 10 , wherein the step of retrieving and reconstructing the reconstructed image comprising summing all of the intermediate images to produce the image.

12. The method as recited in claim 10 , wherein the step of retrieving and reconstructing the reconstructed image comprises selectively summing a plurality of the intermediate images to produce a high spatial resolution image.

13. The method as recited in claim 10 , wherein the step of retrieving and reconstructing the reconstructed image comprises selectively summing a plurality of the intermediate images to produce a high temporal resolution image.

14. The method as recited in claim 10 , further comprising the step of applying a contrast agent during the acquisition of the k-space data.

15. A method for storing image data acquired from a computed tomography (CT) medical imaging procedure, the method comprising the following steps:

a. performing a CT medical imaging scan on an area of interest of a patient;

b. acquiring a plurality of projections from the CT medical imaging scan including performing a radial acquisition of k-space data at continuously incrementing angles over a predetermined time, and collecting a corresponding portion of k-space data for each radial arm of k-space data is per RF excitation during a selected time interval;

c. filtering each of the plurality of projections;

c. performing a Fourier transform on each of the projections to form intermediate images;

d. saving the intermediate image in a standard format; and

e. storing the saved intermediate images in a storage medium wherein the images can be retrieved and summed to reconstruct the image of the scan.