title: Impact of magnetic resonance imaging on the advancement of medicine.
abstract: Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has had a significant impact in many areas of modern medicine. Because of its good image resolution, tissue characterization, and functional assessment of various organs and systems, MR imaging has become an important modern technology in clinical practice and medical research. MR imaging has great flexibility in viewing anatomic structures in arbitrary imaging planes. With ultrafast MR imaging techniques, images of areas of interest can be obtained in a very short time, with elimination of physiologic motion artifacts. MR angiography obviates the need for catheterization and provides highly detailed images of the vascular anatomy, even of structures as small as the coronary artery. MR cholangiopancreatography provides results comparable to those of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in many hepatobiliary diseases. Functional MR imaging is a new tool to evaluate physiologic function. MR spectroscopy has been used to explore the metabolic activity of normal and diseased organs and structures. The applications of MR imaging in clinical medicine and biomedical research are expanding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Imaging, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Y C
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: C T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Su
mesh_terms: D000008:Abdominal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D007592:Joint Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D013122:Spinal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis