Acquisition specific interleaved slice ordering and timing in magnetic resonance imaging

A method of magnetic resonance imaging, MRI, comprising:

• receiving multiple MRI packages, wherein each MRI package is a grouping of multiple MRI pulse sequence parameters each specifying one or more package specific slices, wherein the multiple MRI pulse sequence parameters are adapted to configure pulse sequence commands to implement a physiologically gated MRI protocol;
• regrouping the multiple MRI packages into interleaved acquisition groups such that the one or more package specific slices for any of the multiple MRI packages is not repeated within each of the interleaved acquisition groups;
• repeatedly receiving a periodic physiological signal descriptive of a physiological state of a subject;
• repeatedly acquiring k-space data by controlling the magnetic resonance imaging system with the pulse sequence commands triggered by the periodic physiological signal while sequentially adjusting the pulse sequence commands with the pulse sequence parameters of one of the interleaved acquisition groups;
• and
• providing the acquired k-space data.

A computer program comprising machine executable instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium configured to be executed by a computational system, wherein execution of the machine executable instructions causes the computational system to:

• receive multiple MRI packages, wherein each MRI package is a grouping of multiple MRI pulse sequence parameters each specifying one or more package specific slices, wherein the multiple MRI pulse sequence parameters are adapted to configure pulse sequence commands to implement a physiologically gated MRI protocol;
• regroup the multiple MRI packages into interleaved acquisition groups such that the one or more package specific slices for any of the multiple MRI packages is not repeated within each of the interleaved acquisition groups;
• repeatedly receive a periodic physiological signal descriptive of a physiological state of a subject;
• repeatedly acquire k-space data by controlling the magnetic resonance imaging system with the pulse sequence commands triggered by the periodic physiological signal while sequentially adjusting the pulse sequence commands with the pulse sequence parameters of one of the interleaved acquisition groups;
• and provide the acquired k-space data.