Flexible ordering for multiple slice MRI

1. A method of ordering slices for interleaved magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), comprising:

a. selecting a number of interleaved slice locations (N S ) using an MRI machine, wherein each said interleaved slice comprises a plurality of excitations (N E,S ) where S is the slice number between 1 and N S and N E,S may differ for different slice numbers;

b. selecting an excitation duration (T S ) of each said excitation in each said slice using said MRI machine;

c. selecting a repetition time (TR) using said MRI machine between successive excitations of the same slice, wherein said TR has a duration of N i ×T S , wherein N i is the number of interleaved slices per TR period; and

d. arranging the order for said slices such that the total scan time (T) is minimized such that TR is the product of N i and T s , wherein said N i can be arbitrarily chosen between 1 and N T /N E,max wherein N T is the total number of excitations for all said slices and wherein N E,max is the maximum number of said excitations for one said slice.

2. The method of ordering slices for MRI of claim 1 , wherein the order is determined by filling a matrix that has N i horizontal elements and a number of rows equal to a ratio (N T /N i ) rounded up to the nearest integer, wherein said matrix is filled one column at a time with the N E,S excitations for each of said N S slices, and then the order is played out from said matrix along the rows to interleave said excitations for each slice.

3. The method of ordering slices for MRI of claim 1 , wherein at least one ‘dummy’ acquisition is disposed to precede said N E,S excitations and disposed to acquire each said slice with a result that said dummy acquisition is played each time said slice number differs from said excitation that was played N i acquisition periods prior to a current acquisition, wherein a steady-state acquisition is achieved.

4. The method of ordering slices for MRI of claim 1 , wherein a ‘dummy’ acquisition is played for the first one or more entire TR periods with data discarded, wherein a steady state may form prior to acquisition for each slice.

5. The method of ordering slices for MRI of claim 1 , wherein said method is used with arbitrary ordering schemes of said excitations for each slice, selected from the group consisting of random, centric, elliptic-centric, segmented Echo Planar Imaging (EPI), interleaved EPI, interleaved radial and interleaved spiral.

6. The method of ordering slices for MRI of claim 1 , wherein said method is used with arbitrary echo-train ordering schemes selected from the group consisting of random, center-out, sequential, intermediate-weighted and T2-weighted echo orders.

7. The method of ordering slices for MRI of claim 1 , wherein said method comprises arbitrary view coverage schemes selected from the group consisting of partial Fourier acquisition, parallel imaging acquisitions and randomized undersampled acquisitions.

8. The method of ordering slices for MRI of claim 1 , wherein said slice numbers are reassigned arbitrarily to ordered slices to result in a different final ordering.

9. The method of ordering slices for MRI of claim 1 , wherein said ordering is formed by determining an the overall order using said MRI machine, wherein said slice numbers are then reassigned to arbitrary slices, wherein an odd-then-even order is achieved by assigning odd physical slices to the first N S /2 ordered slices, and the even physical slice locations are assigned to the remaining ordered slices.