• Intro to MRI
  • Advantages and disadvantages
• Physics of MR imaging
  • Interaction of magnetic fields and tissues
• MR imaging characteristics
  • Instrumentation
  • Image quality
• Clinical applications of MR
  • Soft tissue contrast
  • MR in radiation oncology

Introduction to MRI

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was originally developed from Nuclear Magnetic Resonance techniques. The word “nuclear” was dropped after it became associated with bombs and accidents. First developed in the early 1970s, magnetic resonance imaging is one of the newest medical imaging modalities.

One major advantage of MRI is that, unlike X-ray, CT, and nuclear medicine, it uses no ionizing radiation used to form images. Another advantage is that it is capable of much higher soft tissue contrast than other imaging modalities.