Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Principles, Methods, and Techniques

Author:  Perry Sprawls
ISBN:  9780944838976
Published:  2000 | 200 pp | 

Price:   $ 32.95      was 59.95


  
  




Australasian Physical & Engineering Sciences in Medicine  |  January 2001


"I have been involved in the teaching of diagnostic radiology physics to Radiology Registrars and others for more than twenty years now and readily acknowledge that the topic of MRI represents one of the greatest challenges that I face as an educator. My search for a book that presents MRI in a concise but understandable form, with intuitive explanations of the principles devoid of mathematics, seems to have been answered largely with this timely text by Professor Sprawls.

"The book begins with a concise but very easy to understand overview of some of the central features of MRI and introduces essential terminology such as magnetization, proton density, relaxation, image weighting, chemical shift and spectroscopy. Four subsequent chapters elaborate on these key aspects in some detail and a further three chapters discuss imaging based on the spin echo, gradient echo and selective signal suppression techniques that are the bread and butter of MRI. A discussion of how the spatial encoding is obtained in the MR image is addressed in one chapter and image quality (resolution and signal to noise considerations) is treated thoroughly in chapter 11. In fact, one of the positive aspects of the text is the manner in which the author emphasises throughout the book the trade off between image contrast and image noise. Frequently this is achieved with excellent diagrams. Chapter 12 is a very useful description devoted to acquisition time and procedure optimization. One chapter is devoted to the difficult topic of vascular imaging and another to the emerging subject of functional imaging before a discussion of image artifacts completes the mainstream part of the text. It concludes with an excellent and very pragmatic summary of the potential safety concerns that may arise during the operation of an MRI unit. Issues associated with the static magnetic field, the switching gradients and the application of the RF fields are each clearly discussed.

"One may quibble with some aspects of the presentation and content. For example, the discussion of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance is completed without any reference to the two energy states of the proton. This by my reckoning makes the task of explaining the creation of transverse magnetization and the source of the T2 spin-spin interaction process somewhat more difficult but, nevertheless, it is a tribute to the author that he has achieved this task with flying colours.

"Typographical errors are few and far between and the only error of substance I noted relates to the explanation for figure 5.6. The text implies that the two tissue types illustrated have identical T1 relaxation times but different proton densities. In reality the figure implies different T1 relaxation times and proton densities.

"Such minor imperfections aside, both the presentation and the content of the text with its frequent use of excellent explanatory diagrams, are excellent. The use of Mind Maps as combined pictorial/flow chart and text summaries of the material covered in each chapter is a novel but excellent innovative feature of the text. The author states that the book is designed to meet the needs of physicians, radiologists, radiographers and physicists who play a role in the MRI process. To my mind, this aim has been achieved to such an extent that I believe that the book is compulsory reading for anyone who purports to have an interest in MR imaging."

John C.P. Heggie

St. Vincent's Hospital - Melbourne