Systems and methods for phase-sensitive inversion recovery MR imaging with reduced sensitivity to cardiac motion

A magnetic resonance imaging system for phase-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging of tissue affected by cardiovascular pulsatile motion, comprising:

• a radio frequency (RF) signal generator and a magnetic field gradient generator which are together configured to provide a series of RF pulse and magnetic field gradient sequences for acquisition of image data;
• and
• an image processing unit configured to reconstruct a magnetic resonance image of at least a portion of the tissue based on the image data,
• wherein the image data comprises a magnetically-prepared image dataset and a corresponding reference image dataset,
• wherein generating the magnetically-prepared image dataset comprises providing an inversion pulse and an inversion recovery data acquisition sequence,
• wherein generating the corresponding phase reference image dataset comprises providing a reference data acquisition sequence,
• wherein the system is configured to generate both the magnetically-prepared image dataset and the corresponding reference image dataset within a time interval equal to the duration of a single cardiac cycle, and
• wherein the magnetically-prepared image dataset and the corresponding reference image dataset are each acquired when the heart has substantially the same shape.