MRI of material with short relaxation times using Cartesian radial scanning

The authors present a new 3D MRI scan method that combines favourable properties of Cartesian and radial sampling. Cartesian sampling requires only Fourier transformation (FT) to obtain an image. Radial sampling enables imaging of objects with very short transverse relaxation times. The authors constrain radial sampling such that coincidence with a Cartesian grid be maximal. Missing Cartesian samples are estimated with a Bayesian procedure based on FT and general prior knowledge. A substantial reduction of scan time is achieved with respect to conventional radial scanning. Application to a 'phantom' is shown.