System and method for magnetic resonance imaging with an adaptive gating window having constant gating efficiency

1. A method for producing an image of a subject with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, the steps of the method comprising:

a) acquiring with an MRI system, navigator data from a subject;

b) producing a gating window having a defined gating efficiency value using the navigator data acquired in step a);

c) acquiring with the MRI system, image data from the subject while measuring a position of an anatomical location within the subject;

d) storing the image data acquired in step c) for reconstruction when the position of the anatomical location measured in step c) is within the gating window, and discarding the image data acquired in step c) when the position of the anatomical location measured in step c) is outside the gating window;

e) updating a size of the gating window using the position of the anatomical location measured in step c) while maintaining a substantially constant gating efficiency of the gating window;

f) repeating steps c)-e) until a desired amount of image data has been acquired; and

g) reconstructing an image of the subject from the image data stored in step d).

2. The method as recited in claim 1 in which step b) includes producing from the navigator data acquired in step a), a motion profile indicative of a change in position of the anatomical location within the subject.

3. The method as recited in claim 2 in which step e) includes updating the motion profile using the position of the anatomical location measured in step c).

4. The method as recited in claim 2 in which the gating window is produced by defining an upper bound of the gating window and a lower bound of the gating window using the motion profile.

5. The method as recited in claim 4 in which the upper bound of the gating window is selected as a maximum position of the anatomical location in the motion profile.

6. The method as recited in claim 4 in which the lower bound of the gating window is selected as a point where a sum of probabilities of a position of the anatomical location being in the motion profile between the lower bound and the upper bound is at least one of equal to and greater than the gating efficiency value.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 in which step c) includes acquiring navigator data to measure the position of the anatomical location.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 in which the anatomical location is a right hemi-diaphragm of the subject, and in which the motion profile is a respiration profile indicative of respiratory motion of the subject.

9. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system comprising:

a magnet system configured to generate a polarizing magnetic field about at least a portion of a subject arranged in the magnet system;

a plurality of gradient coils configured to apply at least one gradient field to the polarizing magnetic field generated by the magnet system;

a radio frequency (RF) system configured to apply an RF field to the subject and to acquire magnetic resonance (MR) image data therefrom;

a computer system programmed to:

direct the RF system and the plurality of gradient coils to acquire navigator data from a subject;

produce a gating window having a defined gating efficiency value using the acquired navigator data;

direct the RF system and the plurality of gradient coils to acquire image data from the subject while measuring a position of an anatomical location within the subject;

store as stored image data the acquired image data for reconstruction when the measured position of the anatomical location is within the gating window;

discard the acquired image data when the measured position of the anatomical location is outside the gating window;

update a size of the gating window using the measured position of the anatomical location while maintaining a substantially constant gating efficiency of the gating window; and

reconstruct an image of the subject from the stored image data.

10. The MRI system as recited in claim 9 in which the computer system is further programmed to produce the gating window by producing a motion profile indicative of a change in position of the anatomical location within the subject.

11. The MRI system as recited in claim 10 in which the computer system is further programmed to update the gating window by updating the motion profile using the measured position of the anatomical location.

12. The MRI system as recited in claim 10 in which the computer system is further programmed to produce the gating window by defining an upper bound of the gating window and a lower bound of the gating window using the motion profile.

13. The MRI system as recited in claim 12 in which the computer system selects the upper bound of the gating window as a maximum position of the anatomical location in the motion profile.

14. The MRI system as recited in claim 12 in which the computer system selects the lower bound of the gating window as a point in the motion profile where a sum of probabilities of a position of the anatomical location being in the motion profile between the lower bound and the upper bound is at least one of equal to and greater than the gating efficiency value.