The present invention is a method and apparatus for providing preferential enhancement
of an artery of interest relative to adjacent veins and background tissue. The
method and apparatus adapts the timing of a maximum or substantially elevated rate
of infusion to correlate with the collection of image data corresponding to the
center of k-space. The technique and apparatus temporally correlates the timing
of a maximum or substantially elevated rate of infusion and the mapping of k-space
according to the location of the artery of interest, the size of the artery of
interest, the physical condition of the patient, the time delay due to the configuration
of the contrast agent delivery system, and/or the type of pulse sequence employed
by the imaging apparatus. Adapting the timing of a maximum or substantially elevated
rate of infusion to correlate with the collection of image data corresponding to
the center of k-space provides a period of a maximum or substantially elevated
contrast concentration in the artery of interest relative to adjacent veins during
collection of at least a portion of the image data corresponding to the center
of k-space.
