Systems and methods for efficient radial magnetic resonance imaging with azimuthal equidistant projections

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, comprising:

• a magnet system configured to generate a static magnetic field about at least a portion of a subject arranged in the MRI system;
• a gradient system configured to establish at least one magnetic gradient field with respect to the static magnetic field;
• a radio frequency (RF) system configured to deliver excitation pulses to the subject and acquire imaging data from the subject;
• a computer system programmed to:
• acquire the data from the subject by directing the gradient system and the RF system to perform a pulse sequence that samples k-space along a series of projections that span in multiple cycles, wherein successive projections in the series of projections that span in the multiple cycles are spaced apart by an azimuthal increment angle and are computed to change in each cycle as a combination of a baseline increment angle and an angular multiplier to substantially uniformly distribute the series of projections that span in the multiple cycles across k-space while minimizing image artifacts, wherein he azimuthal increment angle is computed as a combination of a baseline increment angle and an angular multiplier;
• and
• reconstruct at least one image of the subject from the acquired k-space data.