What is MRI in simple words?

What is MRI in simple words?

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a safe and painless test that uses a magnetic field and radio waves to produce detailed pictures of the body’s organs and structures. An MRI differs from a CAT scan (also called a CT scan or a computed axial tomography scan) because it doesn’t use radiation.

What does mean MRI?

Also called magnetic resonance imaging, NMRI, and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging. Enlarge. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the abdomen. The patient lies on a table that slides into the MRI machine, which takes pictures of the inside of the body.

How to describe the appearance of an MRI sequence?

This leads to a broad categorization as follows: When describing most MRI sequences we refer to the shade of grey of tissues or fluid with the word intensity, leading to the following absolute terms: Often we refer to the appearance by relative terms:

What’s the difference between T1 and T2 MRI sequences?

Importantly, at first glance FLAIR images appear similar to T1 (CSF is dark). The best way to tell the two apart is to look at the grey-white matter. T1 sequences will have grey matter being darker than white matter. T2 weighted sequences, whether fluid attenuated or not, will have white matter being darker than grey matter.

How are fat saturation and stir suppressed in MRI?

This can be achieved in a number of ways (e.g. chemical fat saturation or STIR) but the end result is the same. Read more about fat suppressed sequences. Similarly in the brain, we often want to detect parenchymal edema without the glaring high signal from CSF. To do this we suppress CSF. This sequence is called FLAIR.

Which is an advantage of a diffusion weighted MRI?

They are essentially T2 weighted images with a bit of susceptibility effects. Read more about diffusion weighted imaging. One of the great advantages of MRI is its ability to image physiological flow (e.g. blood flow) often without the need for intravenous contrast. This allows for the imaging of arteries, veins and CSF flow.

This leads to a broad categorization as follows: When describing most MRI sequences we refer to the shade of grey of tissues or fluid with the word intensity, leading to the following absolute terms: Often we refer to the appearance by relative terms:

Which is a form of magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI )?

MRI was originally called NMRI (nuclear magnetic resonance imaging) and is a form of NMR, though the use of ‘nuclear’ in the acronym was dropped to avoid negative associations with the word. Certain atomic nuclei are able to absorb and emit radio frequency energy when placed in an external magnetic field.

What is a para-sagittal MRI of the head?

Para-sagittal MRI of the head, with aliasing artifacts (nose and forehead appear at the back of the head) 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 in both health and disease.

When was magnetic resonance imaging first used in medicine?

Since its development in the 1970s and 1980s, MRI has proven to be a highly versatile imaging technique. While MRI is most prominently used in diagnostic medicine and biomedical research, it also may be used to form images of non-living objects.