Shifting sampling window and interleaves sparse K-space data acquisition for improved temporal resolution

The present invention relates to the art of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It finds particular application in conjunction with magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), and will be described with particular reference thereto. However, it is to be appreciated that the present invention is also amenable to other like applications. A method of magnetic resonance imaging includes subjecting a region of a patient being imaged to magnetic resonance imaging pulse sequences thereby generating magnetic resonance echoes emanating from the region. The echoes are encoded with magnetic gradients and collected as k-space data in separate consecutive acquisitions. Each acquisition successively fills in one of a number of distinct subsets of k-space based on the encoding of the collected echoes for that acquisition. In turn, a reconstruction algorithm is applied to the k-space data after each acquisition to generate a series of temporally updated image representations of the region. Further, a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus for performing the method is also provided.