Medical magnetic resonance imaging

• explain central sequences and concepts of relevance for MR scanning as well as understand and relate to technical and radiological MR literature.
• operate MR scanners under consideration of safety aspects.
• recognize weighting in typical MR images and explain physiological meaning of image contrast.
• characterize MR system components and explain the practical significance of those.
• choose techniques and parameters for recording of MR images with varying relaxation time weghting and explain relaxation time’s and contrast agent’s fundamental and clinical significance.
• conduct relaxation time measurements with explanation of error sources.
• explain artifacts and k-space representations for often used MRI sequences such as multi-slice/multi-echo sequences, and single-shot techniques.
• choose appropriate saturation techniques for suppression of signal from tissue with specific relaxation times, chemical structure or position.
• choose measurement techniques and analysis methods for determination of parameters characterizing the dynamics of water molecules, and explain the fundamental and clinical significance of flow and diffusion weighting.
• conduct metabolic characterization and analysis using MR techniques.
• explain contrast mechanisms and methods used for functional imaging.

Sequences and contrast parameters, clinical applications, image interpretation and artifacts, paramagnetic contrast agents, proton spectroscopy, flow and diffusion weighting, MR hardware, imaging, MRI safety, technological trends.

e-learning is used in the form of an online prerequisite quiz, and simulation of magnetic resonance phenomena.

22485, Knowledge of MRI corresponding to notes at http://eprints.drcmr.dk/37/ is required (until and including k-space) and the corresponding mathematical formalism covered in course 22485.

A questionnaire covering course prerequisites is available on the course homepage for repetion ahead of the course, but also to give participants not having taken 22485 insight into what they need to study themselves in advance.

Limited programming experience is needed, e.g. Matlab.

Lectures and exercises at scanner and in databar. Traditional problem solving sessions are also part of the course. The participants contribute to the teaching by doing presentations of selected subjects within the course scope.

The course is aimed at students with an interest to work clinically or in research with MR scanning, or with a need to relate magnetic resonance to other techniques. It is a recommended prerequisite for DTU’s advanced MR course, 22507.