Time-resolved phase-contrast MR imaging with speed encoding

A magnetic resonance (MR) apparatus for time-resolved phase-contrast MR imaging with speed encodings, comprising:

• an MR data acquisition unit configured to receive an examination subject therein, and comprising a plurality of radio-frequency (RF) receivers;
• a control unit configured to operate said MR data acquisition unit to acquire MR signals originating from stationary nuclear spins and non-stationary nuclear spins in an examination subject situated in the MR data acquisition unit, using multiple RF receivers among said plurality of RF receivers, in each of a plurality of time segments, with different speed encodings;
• said control unit being configured, for each of said time segments, to enter raw data, corresponding to the MR signals detected in the respective time segment into an electronic memory as raw data points;
• a processor having access to said electronic memory, said processor being configured to reconstruct intermediate images from said raw data and to automatically identify, in said intermediate images, stationary image points originating from said stationary nuclear spins and non-stationary image points originating from said non-stationary nuclear spins;
• said processor being configured to define a mask comprised of mask values that differ within said mask dependent on said stationary image points and said non-stationary image points;
• and
• said processor being configured to reconstruct a plurality of final MR images respectively from the MR signals acquired in the respective segments by executing an iterative reconstruction algorithm with a temporal regularization that is dependent on said mask.

A method for time-resolved magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with speed encoding comprising:

• operating an MR data acquisition unit, comprising a plurality of radio-frequency (RF) receivers to acquire MR signals with multiple RF receivers among said plurality of RF receivers in each of a plurality of time segments by acquiring said MR signals, in each time segment, with a respectively different speed encoding;
• operating said MR data acquisition unit to acquire said MR signals, in each time segment, with one of said different speed encodings that causes raw data, corresponding to the acquired MR signals, to be entered into a region of an electronic memory that incompletely fills said region, according to a scanning pattern, and using a different scanning pattern for each respective different speed encoding;
• and
• in a processor, reconstructing a plurality of MR images from the raw data in said memory acquired during each of said time segments.

A magnetic resonance (MR) apparatus for time-resolved phase-contrast MR imaging with speed encodings, comprising:

• an MR data acquisition unit configured to receive an examination subject therein, and comprising a plurality of radio-frequency (RF) receivers;
• a control unit configured to operate to the MR data acquisition unit to acquire MR signals from the examination subject with multiple RF receivers among said plurality of RF receivers in each of a plurality of time segments by acquiring said MR signals, in each time segment, with a respectively different speed encoding;
• said control unit being configured to operate said MR data acquisition unit to acquire said MR signals, in each time segment, with one of said different speed encodings that causes raw data, corresponding to the acquired MR signals, to be entered into a region of an electronic memory that incompletely fills said region, according to a scanning pattern, and using a different scanning pattern for each respective different speed encoding;
• and
• a processor configured to reconstruct a plurality of MR images from the raw data in said memory acquired during each of said time segments.