System and method for free-breathing volumetric imaging of cardiac tissue

1. A method for producing images of a subject using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, the method comprising:

a) identifying a pre-determined point in a cardiac cycle of a subject;

b) performing with a MRI system an inversion recovery (IR) pulse at a selected one of a plurality of time points within the cardiac cycle of the subject;

c) sampling a segment of k-space with the MRI system at an inversion time from the IR pulse that is substantially coincident with the pre-determined point in the cardiac cycle;

d) repeating steps b) and c) for a plurality of inversion times to achieve a plurality of T1-weighted contrasts by performing the IR pulse at a different one of the plurality of time points from the selected one of the plurality of time points until an IR pulse has been performed at all of the plurality of time points;

e) performing step d) for each of a plurality of segments of k-space to generate datasets having T1-weighted contrasts determined by respective inversion times;

f) reconstructing a set of three-dimensional (3D) spatially-aligned images using the datasets; and

g) generating a T1 recovery map by combining the set of the 3D spatially-aligned images.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising performing a navigator imaging acquisition to identify a pre-determined point in a respiratory cycle of the subject.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining an occurrence of a motion during step c), comparing the occurrence of motion to a threshold, and if the motion was greater than the threshold, repeating step d) with an IR pulse at the selected one of the plurality of time points corresponding to the occurrence of the motion.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein repeating step d) with an IR pulse at the selected one of the plurality of time points corresponding to the occurrence of the motion is not performed if the segment of k-space acquired during the occurrence of the motion corresponds to a periphery of k-space.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of inversion times in step d) are in range approximately between 100 and 600 milliseconds.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein step f) includes performing a compressed-sensing reconstruction technique.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein combining the set of spatially-aligned images is performed by a voxel-wise fit of a plurality of corresponding image intensities according to:

S ( T inv ;M 0 ,T 1 )= M 0 (1−2 e −T inv /T 1 )  (1)

where S is an image intensity, M 0 is a spin density, T inv is an inversion time and T 1 is a longitudinal relaxation time.

8. 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 MRI system;

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

a radio frequency (RF) system configured to apply an RF field to the subject and to receive magnetic resonance signals therefrom;

a computer system programmed to:

identify a pre-determined point in a cardiac cycle of a subject;

control the magnetic gradient system and the RF system according to a pulse sequence including:

i) perform an inversion recovery (IR) pulse at a selected one of a plurality of time points within the cardiac cycle of the subject and sample a segment of k-space at an inversion time from the IR pulse that is substantially coincident with the pre-determined point in the cardiac cycle;

ii) repeat i) for a plurality of inversion times to using IR pulses at different ones of the plurality of time points from the selected one of the plurality of time points until an IR pulse has been performed at all of the plurality of time points;

iii) repeat ii) for each of a plurality of segments of k-space to generate datasets having T1-weighted contrasts determined by respective inversion times;

iv) reconstruct a set of three-dimensional (3D) spatially-aligned images using the datasets; and

v) generate a T1 recovery map by combining the set of the 3D spatially-aligned images.

9. The system of claim 8 , the computer system further programmed to perform a navigator imaging acquisition to identify the pre-determined point in the cardiac cycle of the subject.

10. The system of claim 8 , the computer system further programmed to determine an occurrence of a motion during step i), comparing the occurrence of motion to a threshold, and if the motion was greater than the threshold, repeating step ii) with an IR pulse at the selected one of the plurality of time points corresponding to the occurrence of the motion.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein repeating step ii) with an IR pulse at the selected one of the plurality of time points corresponding to the occurrence of the motion is not performed if the segment of k-space acquired during the occurrence of the motion corresponds to a periphery of k-space.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of inversion times in step ii) are in range approximately between 100 and 600 milliseconds.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the computer system is further programmed to perform a compressed-sensing reconstruction technique in step iv).

14. The system of claim 8 , wherein combining the set of spatially-aligned images is performed by a voxel-wise fit of a plurality of corresponding image intensities according to:

S ( T inv ;M 0 ,T 1 )= M 0 (1−2 e T inv /T 1 )

where S is an image intensity, M 0 is a spin density, T inv is an inversion time and T 1 is a longitudinal relaxation time.