COMBINED MAGNETIC RESONANCE DATA ACQUISITION OF MULTI-CONTRAST IMAGES

摘要

Techniques for reducing the scan time required for the acquisition of two or more magnetic resonance imaging images of a subject having differing contrasts. The techniques described may be incorporated into such an MRI apparatus by way of programming the host computer (20) and/or controller (16) in order to select a control protocol, control the generation of desired waveforms from the RF pulse generator (18) and gradient generot (14), and measure signals that are induced in the subject being imaged.In one arrangement, a combo acquisition protocol of N sets of parameters is selected prior to imaging. In order to image a subject, a first set of parameter values is selected from protocol, a first RF pulse and at least one gradient field to excite the subject, a refocusing RF pulse and at least one gradient field is applied to the subject, a phase encoding gradient field is applied to the subject, and then a measurement gradient field is applied to the subject simultaneously while an induced signal is measured. The process is repeated to obtain N measurements, which are then processed into two or more reconstructed images of differing contrast, and where some of the measurements are used during the reconstruction of two or more of the images.