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Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves to generate images of the organs in the body. MRI does not involve X-rays or the use of ionizing radiation, which distinguishes it from CT and PET scans. MRI is a medical application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) which can also be used for imaging in other NMR applications, such as NMR spectroscopy.
Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging is the use of specific MRI sequences as well as software that generates images from the resulting data that uses the diffusion of water molecules to generate contrast in MR images. It allows the mapping of the diffusion process of molecules, mainly water, in biological tissues, in vivo and non-invasively. Molecular diffusion in tissues is not random, but reflects interactions with many obstacles, such as macromolecules, fibers, and membranes. Water molecule diffusion patterns can therefore reveal microscopic details about tissue architecture, either normal or in a diseased state. A special kind of DWI, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), has been used extensively to map white matter tractography in the brain.
Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is a group of techniques based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to image blood vessels. Magnetic resonance angiography is used to generate images of arteries in order to evaluate them for stenosis, occlusions, aneurysms or other abnormalities. MRA is often used to evaluate the arteries of the neck and brain, the thoracic and abdominal aorta, the renal arteries, and the legs.
In magnetic resonance, a spin echo is the refocusing of spin magnetisation by a pulse of resonant electromagnetic radiation. Modern nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) make use of this effect.
Fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) is an MRI sequence with an inversion recovery set to null fluids. For example, it can be used in brain imaging to suppress cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) effects on the image, so as to bring out the periventricular hyperintense lesions, such as multiple sclerosis (MS) plaques. It was invented by Dr. Graeme Bydder. FLAIR can be used with both three-dimensional imaging or two dimensional imaging.
In physics, the spin–spin relaxation is the mechanism by which Mxy, the transverse component of the magnetization vector, exponentially decays towards its equilibrium value in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It is characterized by the spin–spin relaxation time, known as T2, a time constant characterizing the signal decay. It is named in contrast to T1, the spin–lattice relaxation time. It is the time it takes for the magnetic resonance signal to irreversibly decay to 37% (1/e) of its initial value after its generation by tipping the longitudinal magnetization towards the magnetic transverse plane. Hence the relation
During nuclear magnetic resonance observations, spin–lattice relaxation is the mechanism by which the longitudal component of the total nuclear magnetic moment vector (parallel to the constant magnetic field) exponentially relaxes from a higher energy, non-equilibrium state to thermodynamic equilibrium with its surroundings (the "lattice"). It is characterized by the spin–lattice relaxation time, a time constant known as T1.
Susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI), originally called BOLD venographic imaging, is an MRI sequence that is exquisitely sensitive to venous blood, hemorrhage and iron storage. SWI uses a fully flow compensated, long echo, gradient recalled echo (GRE) pulse sequence to acquire images. This method exploits the susceptibility differences between tissues and uses the phase image to detect these differences. The magnitude and phase data are combined to produce an enhanced contrast magnitude image. The imaging of venous blood with SWI is a blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) technique which is why it was referred to as BOLD venography. Due to its sensitivity to venous blood SWI is commonly used in traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and for high resolution brain venographies but has many other clinical applications. SWI is offered as a clinical package by Philips and Siemens but can be run on any manufacturer’s machine at field strengths of 1.0 T, 1.5 T, 3.0 T and higher.
Magnetic resonance neurography (MRN) is the direct imaging of nerves in the body by optimizing selectivity for unique MRI water properties of nerves. It is a modification of magnetic resonance imaging. This technique yields a detailed image of a nerve from the resonance signal that arises from in the nerve itself rather than from surrounding tissues or from fat in the nerve lining. Because of the intraneural source of the image signal, the image provides a medically useful set of information about the internal state of the nerve such as the presence of irritation, nerve swelling (edema), compression, pinch or injury. Standard magnetic resonance images can show the outline of some nerves in portions of their courses but do not show the intrinsic signal from nerve water. Magnetic resonance neurography is used to evaluate major nerve compressions such as those affecting the sciatic nerve, the brachial plexus nerves, the pudendal nerve, or virtually any named nerve in the body. A related technique for imaging neural tracts in the brain and spinal cord is called magnetic resonance tractography or diffusion tensor imaging.
The physics of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) concerns fundamental physical considerations of MRI techniques and technological aspects of MRI devices. MRI is a medical imaging technique mostly used in radiology and nuclear medicine in order to investigate the anatomy and physiology of the body, and to detect pathologies including tumors, inflammation, neurological conditions such as stroke, disorders of muscles and joints, and abnormalities in the heart and blood vessels among others. Contrast agents may be injected intravenously or into a joint to enhance the image and facilitate diagnosis. Unlike CT and X-ray, MRI uses no ionizing radiation and is, therefore, a safe procedure suitable for diagnosis in children and repeated runs. Patients with specific non-ferromagnetic metal implants, cochlear implants, and cardiac pacemakers nowadays may also have an MRI in spite of effects of the strong magnetic fields. This does not apply on older devices, details for medical professionals are provided by the device's manufacturer.
Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to produce high quality two-dimensional or three-dimensional images of the brain and brainstem without the use of ionizing radiation (X-rays) or radioactive tracers.
Intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) imaging is a concept and a method initially introduced and developed by Le Bihan et al. to quantitatively assess all the microscopic translational motions that could contribute to the signal acquired with diffusion MRI. In this model, biological tissue contains two distinct environments: molecular diffusion of water in the tissue, and microcirculation of blood in the capillary network (perfusion). The concept introduced by D. Le Bihan is that water flowing in capillaries mimics a random walk (Fig.1), as long as the assumption that all directions are represented in the capillaries is satisfied.
Perfusion MRI or perfusion-weighted imaging (PWI) is perfusion scanning by the use of a particular MRI sequence. The acquired data are then post-processed to obtain perfusion maps with different parameters, such as BV, BF, MTT and TTP.
Synthetic MRI is a simulation method in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), for generating contrast weighted images based on measurement of tissue properties. The synthetic (simulated) images are generated after an MR study, from parametric maps of tissue properties. It is thereby possible to generate several contrast weightings from the same acquisition. This is different from conventional MRI, where the signal acquired from the tissue is used to generate an image directly, often generating only one contrast weighting per acquisition. The synthetic images are similar in appearance to those normally acquired with an MRI scanner.
The history of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) includes the work of many researchers who contributed to the discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and described the underlying physics of magnetic resonance imaging, starting early in the twentieth century. MR imaging was invented by Paul C. Lauterbur who developed a mechanism to encode spatial information into an NMR signal using magnetic field gradients in September 1971; he published the theory behind it in March 1973. The factors leading to image contrast had been described nearly 20 years earlier by physician and scientist Erik Odeblad and Gunnar Lindström. Among many other researchers in the late 1970s and 1980s, Peter Mansfield further refined the techniques used in MR image acquisition and processing, and in 2003 he and Lauterbur were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their contributions to the development of MRI. The first clinical MRI scanners were installed in the early 1980s and significant development of the technology followed in the decades since, leading to its widespread use in medicine today.
An MRI sequence in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a particular setting of pulse sequences and pulsed field gradients, resulting in a particular image appearance.
Gradient echo is an MRI sequence of using magnetic gradients to generate signal, instead of using 180 degrees radiofrequency pulse like spin echo; thus leading to faster image acquisition time.
T2*-weighted imaging is an MRI sequence to quantify observable or effective T2. In this sequence, hemorrhages and hemosiderin deposits become hypointense.
Arterial spin labeling (ASL), also known as arterial spin tagging, is a magnetic resonance imaging technique used to quantify cerebral blood perfusion by labelling blood water as it flows throughout the brain. ASL specifically refers to magnetic labeling of arterial blood below the imaging slab, without the need of gadolinium contrast, which is the first of its kind in terms of perfusion imaging. A number of ASL schemes are possible, the simplest being flow alternating inversion recovery (FAIR) which requires two acquisitions of identical parameters with the exception of the out-of-slice saturation; the difference in the two images is theoretically only from inflowing spins, and may be considered a 'perfusion map'. The ASL technique was developed by Alan P. Koretsky, Donald S. Williams, John A. Detre and John S. Leigh, Jr in 1992.
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow MRI is used to assess pulsatile CSF flow both qualitatively and quantitatively. Time-resolved 2D phase-contrast MRI with velocity encoding is the most common method for CSF analysis. CSF Fluid Flow MRI detects back and forth flow of Cerebrospinal fluid that corresponds to vascular pulsations from mostly the cardiac cycle of the choroid plexus. Bulk transport of CSF, characterized by CSF circulation through the Central Nervous System, is not used because it is too slow to assess clinically. CSF would have to pass through the brain’s lymphatic system and be absorbed by arachnoid granulations.
References
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- ↑ De Coene B, Hajnal JV, Gatehouse P, Longmore DB, White SJ, Oatridge A, et al. (1992). "MR of the brain using fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) pulse sequences". AJNR. American Journal of Neuroradiology. 13 (6): 1555–1564. PMC 8332405 . PMID 1332459.
- ↑ Reiser MF, Semmler W, Hricak H (2007). "Chapter 2.4: Image Contrasts and Imaging Sequences". Magnetic Resonance Tomography. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 59. ISBN 978-3-540-29355-2.
- ↑ Weerakkody Y. "Turbo inversion recovery magnitude". Radiopaedia . Retrieved 2017-10-21.
- ↑ Hauer MP, Uhl M, Allmann KH, Laubenberger J, Zimmerhackl LB, Langer M (November 1998). "Comparison of turbo inversion recovery magnitude (TIRM) with T2-weighted turbo spin-echo and T1-weighted spin-echo MR imaging in the early diagnosis of acute osteomyelitis in children". Pediatric Radiology. 28 (11): 846–850. doi:10.1007/s002470050479. PMID 9799315. S2CID 29075661.
- ↑ Ai T. "Chronic osteomyelitis of the left femur". Clinical-MRI. Retrieved 2017-10-21.
- ↑ Sadick M, Sadick H, Hörmann K, Düber C, Diehl SJ (August 2005). "Diagnostic evaluation of magnetic resonance imaging with turbo inversion recovery sequence in head and neck tumors". European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology. 262 (8): 634–639. doi:10.1007/s00405-004-0878-x. PMID 15668813. S2CID 24575696.
- ↑ Soares BP, Porter SG, Saindane AM, Dehkharghani S, Desai NK (2016). "Utility of double inversion recovery MRI in paediatric epilepsy". The British Journal of Radiology. 89 (1057): 20150325. doi:10.1259/bjr.20150325. PMC 4985945 . PMID 26529229.