Cervical spine MRI is a suitable tool in the assessment of all cervical spine (vertebrae C1 - C7) segments (computed tomography (CT) images may be unsatisfactory close to the thoracic spine due to shoulder artifacts). The cervical spine is particularly susceptible to degenerative problems caused by the complex anatomy and its large range of motion.
Advantages of magnetic resonance imaging MRI are the high soft tissue contrast (particularly important in diagnostics of the spinal cord), the ability to display the entire spine in sagittal views and the capacity of 3D visualization. Magnetic resonance myelography is a useful supplement to conventional MRI examinations in the investigation of cervical stenosis. Myelographic sequences result in MR images with high contrast that are similar in appearance to conventional myelograms. Additionally, open MRI studies provide the possibility of weight-bearing MRI scan to evaluate structural positional and kinetic changes of the cervical spine.
Indications of cervical spine MRI scans include the assessment of soft disc herniations, suspicion of disc hernia recurrence after operation, cervical spondylosis, osteophytes, joint arthrosis, spinal canal lesions (tumors, multiple sclerosis, etc.), bone diseases (infection, inflammation, tumoral infiltration) and paravertebral spaces.
State-of-the-art phased array spine coils and high performance MRI machines provide high image quality and short scan time. Imaging protocols for the cervical spine includes sagittal T1 weighted and T2 weighted sequences with 3-4 mm slice thickness and axial slices; usually contiguous from C2 through T1. Additionally, T2 fat suppressed and T1 post contrast images are often useful in spine imaging.

See also Lumbar Spine MRI.

Brain imaging, magnetic resonance imaging of the head or skull, cranial magnetic resonance tomography (MRT), neurological MRI - they describe all the same radiological imaging technique for medical diagnostic.
Magnetic resonance imaging of the human brain includes the anatomic description and the detection of lesions. Special techniques like diffusion weighted imaging, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and spectroscopy provide also information about the function and chemical metabolites of the brain. MRI provides detailed pictures of brain and nerve tissues in multiple planes without obstruction by overlying bones. Brain MRI is the procedure of choice for most brain disorders. It provides clear images of the brainstem and posterior brain, which are difficult to view on a CT scan. It is also useful for the diagnosis of demyelinating disorders (disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS) that cause destruction of the myelin sheath of the nerve).
With this noninvasive procedure also the evaluation of blood flow and the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is possible. Different MRA methods, also without contrast agents can show a venous or arterial angiogram. MRI can distinguish tumors, inflammatory lesions, and other pathologies from the normal brain anatomy. However, MRI scans are also used instead other methods to avoid the dangers of interventional procedures like angiography (DSA - digital subtraction angiography) as well as of repeated exposure to radiation as required for computed tomography (CT) and other X-ray examinations.
A (birdcage) bird cage coil achieves uniform excitation and reception and is commonly used to study the brain. Usually a brain MRI procedure includes FLAIR, T2 weighted and T1 weighted sequences in two or three planes.

See also Fetal MRI, Fluid Attenuation Inversion Recovery (FLAIR), Perfusion Imaging and High Field MRI.
See also Arterial Spin Labeling.

(DENSE) Displacement Encoding with Stimulated Echoes is a functional cardiac MRI pulse sequence, used to create maps of myocardial displacement with high resolution.
The DENSE magnitude images produce black blood images to show better myocard-blood contrast and to reduce motion artifacts.

See also Myocardial Late Enhancement, Spin Tagging, Coronary Angiography with D-Tagging, Cardiovascular Imaging, and Black Blood MRA.

(TrueFISP) True fast imaging with steady state precession is a coherent technique that uses a fully balanced gradient waveform. The image contrast with TrueFISP is determined by T2*//T1 properties and mostly depending on TR. The speed and relative motion insensitivity of acquisition help to make the technique reliable, even in patients who have difficulty with holding their breath.
Recent advances in gradient hardware have led to a decreased minimum TR. This combined with improved field shimming capabilities and signal to noise ratio, has allowed TrueFISP imaging to become practical for whole-body applications. There's mostly T2* weighting. With the used ultrashort TR-times T1 weighting is almost impossible. One such application is cardiac cine MR with high myocardium-blood contrast. Spatial and temporal resolution can be substantially improved with this technique, but contrast on the basis of the ratio of T2* to T1 is not sufficiently high in soft tissues. By providing T1 contrast, TrueFISP could then document the enhancement effects of T1 shortening contrast agents. These properties are useful for the anatomical delineation of brain tumors and normal structures. With an increase in SNR ratio with minimum TR, TrueFISP could also depict the enhancement effect in myoma uteri. True FSIP is a technique that is well suited for cardiac MR imaging. The imaging time is shorter and the contrast between the blood and myocardium is higher than that of FLASH.

See Steady State Free Precession.

MRI of the lumbar spine, with its multiplanar 3 dimensional imaging capability, is currently the preferred modality for establishing a diagnosis. MRI scans and magnetic resonance myelography have many advantages compared with computed tomography and/or X-ray myelography in evaluating the lumbar spine. MR imaging scans large areas of the spine without ionizing radiation, is noninvasive, not affected by bone artifacts, provides vascular imaging capability, and makes use of safer contrast agents (gadolinium chelate).
Due to the high level of tissue contrast resolution, nerves and discs are clearly visible. MRI is excellent for detecting degenerative disease in the spine. Lumbar spine MRI accurately shows disc disease (prolapsed disc or slipped disc), the level at which disc disease occurs, and if a disc is compressing spinal nerves. Lumbar spine MRI depicts soft tissues, including the cauda equina, spinal cord, ligaments, epidural fat, subarachnoid space, and intervertebral discs. Loss of epidural fat on T1 weighted images, loss of cerebrospinal fluid signal around the dural sac on T2 weighted images and degenerative disc disease are common features of lumbar stenosis.

Common indications for MRI of the lumbar spine:
Lumbar spine imaging requires a special spine coil. often used whole spine array coils have the advantage that patients do not need other positioning if also upper parts of the spine should be scanned. Sagittal T1 and T2 weighted FSE sequences are the standard views. With multi angle oblique techniques individually oriented transverse images of each intervertebral disc at different angles can be obtained.

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