The use of Cartesian k-space sampling techniques for high quality 3D time-resolved imaging of the cardiovascular system

Due to its high prevalence, it is critical to diagnose and characterize cardiovascular disease. Methods are described for generating 3D time-resolved contrast-enhanced MR angiograms of multiple vascular territories of the body. Previously it has been challenging to create images having the desired spatial resolution (e.g. 1 mm isotropic) because the acquisition time necessary was longer than the arterial phase of the contrast-enhanced blood. In this work it is shown that order of magnitude acceleration is possible through the combination of 2D sensitivity encoding, homodyne processing, and view sharing. Special purpose receiver coil arrays are also used which retain high SNR. In vivo results are presented to illustrate the general applicability of the method.