Method for cardiac magnetic resonance imaging

A cardiac MR imaging method which adjusts for cardiac arrhythmia, the method comprising:

• A) estimating a time between the patient's R-wave and a commencement of a next cardiac diastole phase;
• B) selecting a delay period to be less than or equal to the estimated R-wave to diastole phase times;
• C) monitoring a patient's cardiac cycle to detect the occurrence of R-waves in a plurality of the cardiac cycles;
• D) in response to detecting an R-wave, starting the delay period;
• E) after the delay period, applying a field echo magnetic resonance imaging sequence to generate a plurality of phase encoded magnetic resonance signals;
• F) in response to detecting a next R-wave, terminating the generation of magnetic resonance signals;
• G) monitoring a time between adjacent R-waves for a cardiac arrhythmia;
• H) in response to monitoring a cardiac arrhythmia, reducing said delay period;
• I) retrospectively selecting from among the generated magnetic resonance signals, the generated magnetic resonance signals occurring in a preselected chase of the cardiac cycle;
• J) repeating steps D)-I);
• and
• K) reconstructing the generated magnetic resonance signals into an image representation.

A method of magnetic resonance cardiac imaging including:

• A) monitoring a cardiac cycle;
• B) commencing applying RF and gradient pulses a delay period after cardiac R-waves to generate magnetic resonance imaging signals, the delay period being selected dependent on an arrhythmia history;
• C) selecting the magnetic resonance signals generated in a diastolic phase;
• D) adapting the delay period in response to a duration between R-waves deviating from an average heart rate such that applying the RF and gradient pulses commences proximate to an early diastolic phase;
• E) repeating steps A)-D) to collect a set of the magnetic resonance signals generated in the diastolic phase;
• and,
• F) reconstructing the set magnetic resonance signals generated in the diastolic phase into a diastolic phase cardiac image.