SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FREE-BREATHING VOLUMETRIC IMAGING OF CARDIAC TISSUE

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system and methods are provided for producing images of a subject. In some aspects, a method includes identifying a point in the cardiac cycle, performing an inversion recovery (IR) pulse at a selected time point from the pre-determined point, and sampling a k-space segment at an inversion time from the IR pulse that is substantially coincident with the pre-determined point. The method also includes repeating the IR pulse and k-space sampling for multiple inversion times, and multiple segments of k-space, in an interleaved manner, to generate datasets having T1-weighted contrasts determined by their respective inversion times. The method further includes reconstructing three-dimensional (3D) spatially-aligned images using the datasets, and generating a T1 recovery map by combining the 3D images. In some aspects, a prospective/retrospective scheme may be used to obtain data fully sampled in the center of k-space and randomly undersampled in the outer regions.