MRI—An Overview

Abstract

Magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, is an imaging technique that has grown alongside CT and that, like CT, has produced Nobel laureates of its own. Where the physics of CT is fairly straightforward—X-rays are emitted and their changes in intensity measured—MRI is based on the generation of a complex of overlapping, fluctuating electromagnetic fields that must be precisely controlled. Mathematically, the effects of the electromagnetic fields on the atomic nuclei in the sample being studied are modeled with differential equations. The Fourier transform is the primary tool for analyzing the electrical signals generated by the motions of atomic nuclei under the influence of these fields.