MRI Flashcards
What are 3 advantages of MRI?
Is non-invasive
Is non-destructive
Uses no ionising radiation, making serial studies more ethically acceptable
what are 4 disadvantages of MRI?
Time - takes longer. therefore patient motion a greater problem
Contraindications - More patients have contraindications for MRI compared to CT. Such contraindications arise because of metal in the patient in the form of passive medical implants or metallic fragments in their eyes, or because of active electronic implants such as cardiac pacemakers
Cost - expensive
Difficult theory
will muscle produce a higher signal than cortical bone?
Yes
how is it that the presence of bone can be inferred from MR images?
(1) cortical bone shows up as dark against the high signal from soft tissue and (2) marrow (i.e. fat) in the trabecular bone also produces high signal (Fig 1).
Very briefly how does MRI work?
(1) place the patient in a strong external magnetic field to align the protons; (2) apply a pulse of RF radiation at the correct frequency to produce resonance; (3) detect the RF radiation emitted as resonating protons relax to give an NMR signal
What quantity is the static magnetic field and how do we refer to it?
The static magnetic field (B0) is a vector quantity (i.e. it has direction as well as magnitude)
What effect does B0 have on the patient?
exerts a force on hydrogen nuclei (protons) within the body and this causes them to align themselves in the direction of the field or in the opposite direction.
What does the RF pulse do?
The RF pulse causes the nuclei to change their alignment but only if the radio waves within it have a particular frequency (the Larmor frequency).
What happens after the RF pulse is switched off?
After the pulse is switched off, the patient emits RF radiation at the same frequency as the protons revert (relax) to their original alignments in the magnetic field. This emission is detected by a receiver to create a measurable signal (an electrical voltage that varies with time).
How is the strong static magnetic field created?
by the flow of direct current in coils of electrically conducting material
Why is the static magnetic field always on and present?
In the large majority of MRI scanners, the coil material is maintained at a very low temperature (that of liquid helium) such that it is superconducting i.e. it has no electrical resistance. For practical reasons, this means that the current is always on and that the field is always present.
How is the RF pulse created?
The RF pulse (often called the RF magnetic field) is created by the flow of alternating current in a separate coil (that is not superconducting). The same coil may be used to detect the emitted RF radiation at a later time, or a separate coil may be used for this purpose.
What are gradient coils and why do we have them?
The MRI scanner also has a further set of three non-superconducting coils (the gradient coils) that are used to locate the source of the emitted RF radiation within the patient.
In these gradient coils, direct current is rapidly switched on and off to produce gradient magnetic fields in three mutually perpendicular directions (X, Y and Z).
What does ‘proton’ refer to in MRI?
the nucleus of a hydrogen atom (hydrogen-1) and does not refer to a proton in the nucleus of atoms of other elements that exist in the body
What are 4 key pieces of information about the proton to understand MRI?
Protons have mass (1.7 × 10-27 kg), positive electric charge (1.6 × 10-19 coulomb) and ‘spin’
Spinning charges produce a magnetic field
Hydrogen nuclei therefore act like tiny magnets or magnetic dipoles (which have ‘north’ and ‘south’ magnetic poles separated by a short distance)
The human body is about 80% water and therefore contains lots of hydrogen nuclei
What property does spin give to a proton?
angular momentum
What is angular momentum?
loosely defined as the quantity of rotation possessed by an object. Angular momentum is a vector quantity
How is angular momentum quantised on an atomic scale and what is it in a proton?
it can only have certain discrete values. The angular momentum of a nucleus is Ih/2π,where I is a quantum number that can only be zero, an integer (whole number such as 1, 2 etc.) or a multiple of ½ (such as ½, ³⁄₂, ⁵⁄₂ etc.). For the proton, I=½
What is magnetic dipole moment?
The MDM is an important property of a magnet; it can be considered as the characteristic of the magnet that indicates how quickly it will align itself with an external magnetic field. The MDM is also a vector quantity.
How do you calculate MDM?
the product of the spin angular momentum and γ, the gyromagnetic ratio
What does the gyromagnetic ratio depend on?
γ is the MDM divided by the spin angular momentum. Its value depends on the type of nucleus; for the proton it is 2.67 x 108 rad s^-1T^-1. Here ‘rad’ means radian, the SI unit of angle, with 2π radians (a full circle) being equal to 360°.
What happens to the protons in a body when in a high magnetic field?
protons align either with the field (in a relatively low-energy state) or against the field, i.e. in the opposite direction to it (in a higher-energy state). A slightly greater number of hydrogen nuclei align with the field than against the field
What can happen to a proton in a magnetic field if applied with an oscillating magnetic field?
An oscillating magnetic field at the correct frequency can make protons change from the low- to the high-energy state and in the opposite direction. An oscillating field of this type is equivalent to electromagnetic radiation at the same frequency
What is the equation for Larmor frequency?
ν = γB0/2π