Figure 1

Respiratory triggered cine bSSFP acquisition schematic. RF excitations starts at user-defined time delay after user-specified respiratory expiration trigger. Case 1: R wave occurs at time longer than user-prescribed time to steady state after the beginning of RF excitations, DAQ is turned on and data is accepted until following R wave occurs and R-R interval is within prescribed arrhythmia rejection window. Case 2: R wave occurs in less than user-prescribed time to steady state, the DAQ is turned on only after the subsequent R wave and data is accepted as in Case 1. Phase encoding steps for the shot are changed after successful acceptance of the previous shot. Red dot – expiration trigger, RF- radio frequency, DAQ – data acquisition, black rectangle – DAQ off, orange/green rectangle – DAQ ON.