Back to Basics Series: Fundamental Principle of MRI—From NMR to MRI

Abstract

Already 50 years have past since the principle of MRI has been proposed. MRI has become the necessary clinical diagnostic tool such as X-CT. MRI techniques have been still in further progress. In this manuscript, the historical review of NMR and MRI were introduced, and the fundamental principle of NMR phenomena such as the principle of magnetic resonance, relaxation process and NMR information were introduced to understand MRI techniques. Following these introduction, fundamental MR imaging techniques such as 2-D Fourier Transform in relation to MR imaging, parameters of image construction, the role of gradient field, contrast enhanced images and fast MR imaging techniques were introduced.