MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING

INTRODUCTION:
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). NMR can also be used
for imaging in other NMR applications, such as NMR spectroscopy.
While the hazards of ionizing radiation are now well controlled in most medical
contexts, an MRI may still be seen as a better choice than a CT scan. MRI is widely
used in hospitals and clinics for medical diagnosis and staging and follow-up of
disease without exposing the body to radiation. An MRI may yield different
information compared with CT. Risks and discomfort may be associated with MRI
scans. Compared with CT scans, MRI scans typically take longer and are louder, and
they usually need the subject to enter a narrow, confining tube. In addition, people
with some medical implants or other non-removable metal inside the body may be
unable to undergo an MRI examination safely.
HISTORY:
In 1971 at Stony Brook University, Paul Lautenberg applied magnetic field gradients
in all three dimensions and a back-projection technique to create NMR images. He
published the first images of two tubes of water in 1973 in the journal Nature,
followed by the picture of a living animal, a clam, and in 1974 by the image of the
thoracic cavity of a mouse. Lautenberg called his imaging method zeugmatography, a
term which was later replaced by (N) MR imaging. In the late 1970s, physicists Peter
Mansfield and Paul Lautenberg, developed MRI-related techniques, like the echo-
planar imaging (EPI) technique. Advances in semiconductor technology were crucial
to the development of practical MRI, which requires a large amount of computational
power.
MRI:
An MRI scan uses a large magnet, radio waves, and a computer to create a
detailed, cross-sectional image of internal organs and structures. The scanner itself
typically resembles a large tube with a table in the middle, allowing the patient to slide
in. An MRI scan differs from CT scans and X-rays, as it does not use potentially
harmful ionizing radiation.
MECHANISM:
In most medical applications, hydrogen nuclei, which consist solely of a proton,
that are in tissues create a signal that is processed to form an image of the body in
terms of the density of those nuclei in a specific region. Given that the protons are
affected by fields from other atoms to which they are bonded, it is possible to separate
responses from hydrogen in specific compounds. To perform a study, the person is
positioned within an MRI scanner that forms a strong magnetic field around the area
to be imaged. First, energy from an oscillating magnetic field is temporarily applied to
the patient at the appropriate resonance frequency. Scanning with X and Y gradient
coils cause a selected region of the patient to experience the exact magnetic field
required for the energy to be absorbed. The excited atoms emit a radio frequency (RF)
signal, which is measured by a receiving coil. The RF signal may be processed to
deduce position information by looking at the changes in RF level and phase caused
by varying the local magnetic field using gradient coils. As these coils are rapidly
switched during the excitation and response to perform a moving line scan, they create
the characteristic repetitive noise of an MRI scan as the windings move slightly due to
magnetostriction. The contrast between different tissues is determined by the rate at
which excited atoms return to the equilibrium state. Exogenous contrast agents may be
given to the person to make the image clearer.
The major components of an MRI scanner are the main magnet, which polarizes the
sample, the shim coils for correcting shifts in the homogeneity of the main magnetic
field, the gradient system which is used to localize the region to be scanned and the RF
system, which excites the sample and detects the resulting NMR signal. The whole
system is controlled by one or more computers.

Picture of MRI Scanning machine

DIAGNOSTICS:
MRI has a wide range of applications in medical diagnosis and more than
25,000 scanners are estimated to be in use worldwide. RI affects diagnosis and
treatment in many specialties although the effect on improved health outcomes is
disputed in certain cases.
MRI is the investigation of choice in the preoperative staging of rectal and prostate
cancer and has a role in the diagnosis, staging, and follow-up of other tumors, as well
as for determining areas of tissue
Cardiovascular:
Cardiac MRI is complementary to other imaging techniques, such
as echocardiography, cardiac CT, and nuclear medicine. It can be used to assess the
structure and the function of the heart. Its applications include assessment
of myocardial ischemia and viability, cardiomyopathies, myocarditis, iron overload,
vascular diseases, and congenital heart disease.
Musculoskeletal:
Applications in the musculoskeletal system include spinal imaging, assessment
of joint disease, and soft tissue tumors. Also, MRI techniques can be used for
diagnostic imaging of systemic muscle diseases.
Liver and Gastrointestinal:
Hepatobiliary MR is used to detect and characterize lesions of
the liver, pancreas, and bile ducts. Focal or diffuse disorders of the liver may be
evaluated using diffusion-weighted, opposed-phase imaging and dynamic contrast
enhancement sequences. Extracellular contrast agents are used widely in liver MRI,
and newer Hepatobiliary contrast agents also provide the opportunity to perform
functional biliary imaging. Anatomical imaging of the bile ducts is achieved by using
a heavily T2-weighted sequence in magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography
(MRCP). Functional imaging of the pancreas is performed following administration
of secretin. MR Heterography provides non-invasive assessment of inflammatory
bowel disease and small bowel tumors. MR-colonography may play a role in the
detection of large polyps in patients at increased risk of colorectal cancer.
Angiography:
Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) generates pictures of the arteries to
evaluate them for stenosis (abnormal narrowing) or aneurysms (vessel wall dilatations,
at risk of rupture). MRA is often used to evaluate the arteries of the neck and brain, the
thoracic and abdominal aorta, the renal arteries, and the legs (called a "run-off"). A
variety of techniques can be used to generate the pictures, such as administration of
a paramagnetic contrast agent (gadolinium) or using a technique known as "flow-
related enhancement" (e.g., 2D and 3D time-of-flight sequences), where most of the
signal on an image is due to blood that recently moved into that plane (see
also FLASH MRI).
Techniques involving phase accumulation (known as phase contrast angiography) can
also be used to generate flow velocity maps easily and accurately. Magnetic resonance
venography (MRV) is a similar procedure that is used to image veins. In this method,
the tissue is now excited inferiorly, while the signal is gathered in the plane
immediately superior to the excitation plane thus imaging the venous blood that
recently moved from the excited plane.
OTHER CONFIGURATIONS:
Magnetic resonance spectroscopy:
Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is used to measure the levels of
different metabolites in body tissues, which can be achieved through a variety of
single voxel or imaging-based techniques. The MR signal produces a spectrum of
resonances that corresponds to different molecular arrangements of the isotope being
"excited". This signature is used to diagnose certain metabolic disorders, especially
those affecting the brain and to provide information on tumour metabolism.
Real time MRI:
Real-time MRI refers to the continuous imaging of moving objects (such as the
heart) in real time. One of the many different strategies developed since the early
2000s is based on radial FLASH MRI, and iterative reconstruction. This gives a
temporal resolution of 20–30 Ms for images with an in-plane resolution of 1.5–
2.0 mm.Balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) imaging has a better image
contrast between the blood pool and myocardium than the FLASH MRI, yet it will
produce severe banding artifact when the B0 inhomogeneity is strong. Real-time
MRI is likely to add important information on diseases of the heart and the joints, and
in many cases may make MRI examinations easier and more comfortable for patients,
especially for the patients who cannot hold their breathings or who have arrhythmia.
Interventional MRI:
The lack of harmful effects on the patient and the operator make MRI well-
suited for interventional radiology, where the images produced by an MRI scanner
guide minimally invasive procedures. Such procedures use
no ferromagnetic instruments. A specialized growing subset of interventional
MRI is intraoperative MRI, in which an MRI is used in surgery. Some specialized
MRI systems allow imaging concurrent with surgical procedure. More typically, the
surgical procedure is temporarily interrupted so that MRI can assess the success of the
procedure or guide subsequent surgical work.
Multinuclear Imaging:
Hydrogen has the most frequently imaged nucleus in MRI because it is present
in biological tissues in great abundance, and because its high gyromagnetic ratio gives
a strong signal. However, any nucleus with a net nuclear spin could potentially be
imaged with MRI. Such nuclei include helium-3, lithium-7, carbon-13, fluorine-
19, oxygen-17, sodium-23, phosphorus-31 and xenon-129. 23Na and 31P are naturally
abundant in the body, so they can be imaged directly. Gaseous isotopes such as 3He
or 129Xe must be hyperpolarized and then inhaled as their nuclear density is too low to
yield a useful signal under normal conditions. 17O and 19F can be administered in
sufficient quantities in liquid form (e.g. 17O-water) that hyperpolarization is not a
necessity. Using helium or xenon has the advantage of reduced background noise, and
therefore increased contrast for the image itself, because these elements are not
normally present in biological tissues.
Moreover, the nucleus of any atom that has a net nuclear spin and that is bonded to a
hydrogen atom could potentially be imaged via hetereonuclear magnetization transfer
MRI that would image the high-gyromagnetic-ratio hydrogen nucleus instead of the
low-gyromagnetic-ratio nucleus that is bonded to the hydrogen atom. In principle,
hetereonuclear magnetization transfer MRI could be used to detect the presence or
absence of specific chemical bonds.
SAFTY:
MRI is in general a safe technique, although injuries may occur as a result of
failed safety procedures or human error. Contraindications to MRI include
most cochlear implants and cardiac pacemakers, shrapnel, and metallic foreign
bodies in the eyes. Magnetic resonance imaging in pregnancy appears to be safe at
least during the second and third trimesters if done without contrast agents. Since MRI
does not use any ionizing radiation, its use is generally favoured in preference
to CT when either modality could yield the same information. Some patients
experience claustrophobia and may require sedation
MRI uses powerful magnets and can therefore cause magnetic materials to move at
great speeds posing a projectile risk. Deaths have occurred. However, as millions of
MRIs are performed globally each year, fatalities are extremely rare.
ARTIFACTS:
An MRI artifact is a visual artifact, that is, an anomaly during visual
representation. Many different artefacts can occur during magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI), some affecting the diagnostic quality, while others may be confused with
pathology. Artefacts can be classified as patient-related, signal processing-dependent
and hardware (machine)-related.
 Machine visual result

NON-MEDICAL USE:
MRI is used industrially mainly for routine analysis of chemicals. The nuclear
magnetic resonance technique is also used, for example, to measure the ratio between
water and fat in foods, monitoring of flow of corrosive fluids in pipes, or to study
molecular structures such as catalysts.
Being non-invasive and non-damaging, MRI can be used to study the anatomy of
plants, their water transportation processes and water balance. It is also applied to
veterinary radiology for diagnostic purposes. Outside this, its use in zoology is limited
due to the high cost; but it can be used on many species. In palaeontology it is used to
examine the structure of fossils by getting their three-dimensional geometry.
FUNCTION:
An MRI scanner contains two powerful magnets. These are the most important
parts of the equipment. The human body is largely made of water molecules, which
are comprised of hydrogen and oxygen atoms. At the centre of each atom lies an even
smaller particle called a proton, which serves as a magnet and is sensitive to any
magnetic field. Normally, the water molecules in the body are randomly arranged, but
on entering an MRI scanner, the first magnet causes the water molecules to align in
one direction, either north or south. The second magnetic field is then turned on and
off in a series of quick pulses, causing each hydrogen atom to change its alignment
when switched on and then quickly switch back to its original relaxed state when
switched off. Passing electricity through gradient coils, which also cause the coils to
vibrate, creates the magnetic field, causing a knocking sound inside the scanner.
Although the patient cannot feel these changes, the scanner can detect them and, in
conjunction with a computer, can create a detailed cross-sectional image for the
radiologist.
USES:

 anomalies of the brain and spinal cord

 tumors, cysts, and other anomalies in various parts of the
body
 breast cancer screening for women who face a high risk of
breast cancer
 injuries or abnormalities of the joints, such as the back and
knee
 certain types of heart problems
 diseases of the liver and other abdominal organs
 Suspected uterine anomalies in women undergoing
evaluation for infertility.
 The evaluation of pelvic pains in women with causes
including fibroids and endometics.
SIDE EFFECT:
It is extremely rare that a patient will experience side effects from an MRI scan.
However, the contrast dye can cause nausea, headaches, and pain or burning at the
point of injection in some people. Allergy to the contrast material is also seldom seen
but possible, and can cause hives or itchy eyes. Notify the technician if any adverse
reactions occur. People who experience claustrophobia or feel uncomfortable in
enclosed spaces sometimes express difficulties with undergoing an MRI scan.

CONCLUSION:
The MRI is to visualise the body of patient in a detailed form without having to
cut it open.it has a variety of purpose and uses. Its significance in both the biological
and medical field in unimaginable, as this machine uses its complex way to save lives
around the globe every day.

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