Systems and methods for free-breathing three-dimensional magnetic resonance fingerprinting

A method for generating three-dimensional imaging data from an abdomen of a subject, the method comprising:

• acquiring, using a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) system, NMR data from a volume in an abdomen of a subject using a series of partitions, where each partition includes one or more segments, where each segment comprises:
• (i) a navigator module configured to acquire navigator data during a free breathing period of the subject;
• (ii) an acquisition module configured to acquire NMR data from the abdomen during the free breathing period, where the acquisition module is configured to elicit one or more resonant species within the abdomen to simultaneously produce a signal evolution;
• (iii) repeating steps (i) and (ii) to acquire data from a plurality of partitions across the volume in the abdomen of the subject;
• (iv) analyzing the navigator data to determine that the NMR data meets a predetermined condition and repeating steps (i) and (ii) for at least an affected partition corresponding to NMR data that did not meet the predetermined condition;
• comparing the NMR data to a dictionary of signal evolutions to determine quantitative values for two or more parameters of the resonant species in the volume based, at least in part, on matching the acquired NMR data to a set of known MRF signal evolutions stored in the dictionary;
• and
• producing a three-dimensional image of the volume in the abdomen based, at least in part, on the quantitative values.

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 plurality of gradient coils configured to apply a gradient field to the polarizing magnetic field;
• a radio frequency (RF) system configured to apply an excitation field to the subject and acquire MR image data from a ROI;
• a computer system programmed to:
• control the plurality of gradient coils and the RF system to perform a pulse sequence by:
• (i) performing a navigator module to acquire navigator data during free breathing of the subject;
• (ii) performing an acquisition module during the free breathing of the subject to acquire NMR data from a volume in the subject that contains one or more resonant species that simultaneously produced individual NMR signals in response to the acquisition module;
• (iii) repeating steps (i) and (ii) to acquire data from a plurality of partitions across the volume;
• (iv) analyzing the navigator data to determine that the NMR data meets a predetermined condition and repeating steps (i) and (ii) for at least an affected partition corresponding to NMR data that did not meet the predetermined condition;
• compare the NMR data to a dictionary of signal evolutions to determine quantitative values for two or more parameters of the resonant species in the volume based, at least in part, on matching the acquired NMR data to a set of known MRF signal evolutions stored in the dictionary, wherein the two or more parameters include T1, T2, and proton density, T1 being spin-lattice relaxation, T2 being spin-spin relaxation;
• produce an image of at least the volume of the subject based, at least in part, on the quantitative values;
• and
• a display to display the image of at least the volume of the subject based, at least in part, on the quantitative values.