System and method for T1 relaxation enhanced steady-state MRI

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;
• a plurality of gradient coils configured to apply at least one gradient field to the polarizing magnetic field;
• a radio frequency (RF) system configured to apply an excitation field to the subject and to receive MR data from the subject;
• and
• a computer system programmed to:
• direct the plurality of magnetic gradient coils and the RF system to perform a balanced T1 relaxation enhanced steady-state pulse sequence to acquire MR data from a region of interest of the subject during an equilibrium phase of contrast enhancement after a first pass of the extracellular contrast agent through the region of interest, the balanced T1 relaxation enhanced steady-state pulse sequence comprising:
• a T1-weighted magnetization preparation comprising at least one contrast modifying (CM) radio frequency (RF) pulse;
• a single-shot balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) readout applied after the T1-weighted magnetization preparation, the bSSFP readout comprising a plurality of excitation RF pulses and configured to acquire the MR data including a center of k-space in a plurality of echoes corresponding to the plurality of excitation RF pulses;
• and
• a time interval between the T1-weighted magnetization preparation and the acquisition of the center of k-space, wherein the time interval is determined based on a T1 relaxation time of a contrast-enhanced blood pool and a flip angle of the at least one CM RF pulse, and the time interval is configured to maximize a contrast between the contrast enhanced blood pool and at least one other tissue in the region of interest;
• and
• generate an angiographic image of the region of interest of the subject based on the acquired MR data, wherein blood vessels in the region of interest appear brighter than background tissues.