The MRI equipment consists of following components:
Better MRI equipment and software design along with the latest information technology improves system maintenance and overall communication. Software and digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) compatibility allows to network into hospital databases, helps to modify pulse sequences, data post processing, and archiving via picture archiving and communication system (PACS).

See also the related poll result: 'Most outages of your scanning system are caused by failure of'

The subacute risks and side effects of magnetic and RF fields (for patients and staff) have been intensively examined for a long time, but there have been no long-term studies following persons who have been exposed to the static magnetic fields used in MRI. However, no permanent hazardous effects of a static magnetic field exposure upon human beings have yet been demonstrated.
Temporary possible side effects of high magnetic and RF fields:
The results of some animal and cellular studies suggest the possibility that electromagnetic fields may act as co-carcinogens or tumor promoters, but the data are inconclusive. Up to 45 tesla, no important effects on enzyme systems have been observed. Neither changes in enzyme kinetics, nor orientation changes in macromolecules have been conclusively demonstrated.
There are some publications associating an increase in the incidence of leukemia with the location of buildings close to high-current power lines with extremely low-frequency (ELF) electromagnetic radiation of 50-60 Hz, and industrial exposure to electric and magnetic fields but a transposition of such effects to MRI or MRS seems unlikely.
Under consideration of the MRI safety guidelines, real dangers or risks of an exposure with common MRI field strengths up to 3 tesla as well as the RF exposure during the MRI scan, are not to be expected.

For more MRI safety information see also Nerve Conductivity, Contraindications, Pregnancy and Specific Absorption Rate.

See also the related poll result: 'In 2010 your scanner will probably work with a field strength of'

(MR) Resonance phenomenon resulting in the absorption and/or emission of electromagnetic energy by nuclei (for that reason also nuclear magnetic resonance) or electrons in a static magnetic field, after excitation by a suitable RF magnetic field.
The peak resonance frequency is proportional to the magnetic field, and is given by the Larmor equation. Only unpaired electrons or nuclei with a spin exhibit magnetic resonance. The absorption or emission of energy by atomic nuclei in an external magnetic field after the application of RF excitation pulses using frequencies, which satisfy the conditions of the Larmor equation.
The magnetic resonance phenomenon may be used in one of these ways:
By manipulation of the external field (application of gradient fields), the resonance frequency can become dependent on spatial location, and hence images may be generated (MRI).
The effect of the electron cloud in any atom or molecule is to slightly shield the nucleus from the external field, thus giving any chemical species a characteristic frequency. This gives rise to 'spectra' where nuclei in a molecule give rise to specific signals, thus facilitating the detection of individual chemicals by means of their frequency spectra (MRS)

(MSI) The combination of biomagnetic field detection and MR imaging into a merged data set. Most applications of MSI involve the combined use of MRI and measurement of magnetic fields created by electric currents in the brain, so-called magnetoencephalography MEG.
MEG allows calculation of the source of the measured biomagnetic fields, and thereby localization of many regional brain functions, such as mapping of the sensorimotor, auditory and visual cortex and also localization of epileptogenic foci. The MEG coordinate system is defined by anatomical landmarks, which are easily identified also with MRI, making it possible to align the 3D MEG data with the 3D MR image data. The resulting magnetic source images show the spatial relationships between the functional area provided by MEG and the neighboring anatomy and pathology, both provided by MRI.
Cardiac applications of MSI are also being explored. The electric currents in the myocardium create extrathoracic magnetic fields and the source of these fields may be calculated by the same principles as those used in MEG. Possible cardiac applications include mapping of arrhythmogenic sites prior to ablation therapy.

(NPW / PNW - Phase No Wrap) If the receiving RF coil is sensitive to tissue signal arising from outside the desired FOV, this undesired signal may be incorrectly mapped, or wrapped back to a location within the image and is seen as artifact. This problem occurs in the phase encoding direction, where the phases of signal-bearing tissues outside of the FOV in the y-direction are a replication of the phases that are encoded within the FOV.
A user-selectable parameter maps this signal to its correct location outside the FOV, then discards any signal from outside the FOV before displaying the image. No phase wrap works by filling k-space to the same extent, using twice as many phase encoding steps. In order to be able to choose this parameter, in most cases more than an average is necessary.

See Foldover Suppression and Oversampling.