Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Applications

Dr. Armando Manduca
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Co-Director, Biomathematics Resource
Mayo Clinic

MRI exams are an integral part of modern medicine and can provide detailed anatomical pictures of the human body non-invasively.  MRI can also depict or measure an amazingly wide variety of other phenomena: neural activity in the brain, water diffusivity, local microstructural properties, details of blood flow within a vessel or aneurysm, and metabolite concentrations in vivo.  How does MRI work?  We'll discuss the basic physical principles involved in MRI, survey the wide variety of applications (and how they work), and then talk in depth about MR elastography: the imaging of acoustic wave propagation through tissues or other materials, leading to images depicting the *elasticity* of objects.  This can be thought of as quantitative, non-invasive touching or poking of structures inside the body, with significant clinical implications.