Selective excitation of spin magnetizations based on their velocities can be a useful tool for generating image contrast in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) applications. Particularly in MR angiography, velocity-selective (VS) excitation can highlight arterial blood only by utilizing its significantly different velocity from stationary tissues and venous blood in the background. This invention describes the principle and design of MRI pulse sequences based on VS magnetization preparation. Its use for non-contrast enhanced MR angiography is demonstrated. The VS MRA compared to prior methods allows for large angiographic field-of-view and can generate positive angiographic contrast directly using single acquisition without subtraction.
