MR pulse sequences: what every radiologist wants to know but is afraid to ask.
The use of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is growing exponentially, in part because of the excellent anatomic and pathologic detail provided by the modality and because of recent technologic advances that have led to faster acquisition times. Radiology residents now are introduced in their 1st year of training to the MR pulse sequences routinely used in clinical imaging, including various spin-echo, gradient-echo, inversion-recovery, echo-planar imaging, and MR angiographic sequences. However, to make optimal use of these techniques, radiologists also need a basic knowledge of the physics of MR imaging, including T1 recovery, T2 and T2* decay, repetition time, echo time, and chemical shift effects. In addition, an understanding of contrast weighting is very helpful to obtain better depiction of specific tissues for the diagnosis of various pathologic processes.
Bitar
Richard
R
Department of Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, Fitzgerald Building, 150 College St, Room 112, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3E2. richard.bitar@utoronto.ca
Leung
General
G
Perng
Richard
R
Tadros
Sameh
S
Moody
Alan R
AR
Sarrazin
Josee
J
McGregor
Caitlin
C
Christakis
Monique
M
Symons
Sean
S
Nelson
Andrew
A
Roberts
Timothy P
TP
D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011871:Radiology / Q000193:education / Q000379:methods; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted