An Introduction to MRI for Medical Physicists and Engineers

MRI reveals structural and anatomic details of soft tissues often much better than does CT. It can also exploit novel and unique contrast mechanisms at the biomolecular level to provide information on the physiologic and pathologic status of organs, muscles, nerve trunks, cartilage, etc. This introduction to the science and technology of MRI has been written at the beginning graduate level primarily for professional medical physicists and engineers in training. Others, such as physicians with physical science backgrounds, may well also find it to be of interest. Several more advanced topicslike Fourier analysis, k-space, and statistical distributionsare introduced as they are needed. Richly illustrated, this book will help readers understand not just the basics of MRI, but how recent variations on its original implementation have produced the many alternative interpretations of data that have made MRI such a powerful diagnostic tool.