A system and method is provided for acquiring a medical image of a portion of a vascular structure of a subject using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system. A magnetization preparation RF module is applied to a portion of a subject including a vascular structure using the MRI system. A readout procedure is performed to collect image data, wherein the readout procedure includes a phase encoding scheme configured to provide a desired delay time after the application of the magnetization preparation RF module to allow a partial recovery of signal within the vascular structure following application of the magnetization preparation RF module when sampling a central region of k-space during the readout procedure. The image set is reconstructed into an image of the vascular structure wherein blood within the vascular structure is reflected as a gray-blood image.
