Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Abstract

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) moved out of the exclusive realm of academia and into widespread clinical practice in the 1980s. Relatively quickly, MRI became the modality of choice for several head, spine, and musculoskeletal imaging exams due to tis excellent soft tissue contrast. Although the plateau of MRI’s development and utilization has often been predicted, it continues to grow through being an amazingly adaptive technology. New mechanisms of generating image contrast have allowed the modality to go beyond the study of anatomical structure and deliver functional physiological informaion. A description of the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) phenomena, methods to spatially encode the NMR signal, image contrast mechanisms, and emerging appliactions are provided.