Magnetic Resonance (Medical Imaging) - The Essentials: Part1
What you'll learn
- Understand what principles the most versatile medical imaging modality, Magnetic Resonance, is based on and how MRI scanners work
- Learn how the signal is generated, detected and processed
- Learn about the most often used pulse sequences with their parameters, properties and the main contrast types
- Learn about RF pulses in depth and how to use and design them in practice
- Become familiar with Fourier-based pulse design (hard, sinc, gaussian, hermitte, fermi pulses)
- Become familiar with the SLR technique (linear, minimum, maximum, quadratic phase pulses)
- Become familiar with adiabatic pulses, slice selective pulses and SpSp pulses
- Develop a deeper understanding of how magnetic resonance works from theory to practice
- Being able to understand literature and continue learning on your own about MRI
Requirements
- Some math knowledge (e.g. knowing exp(x) function, polynomials, fractions, harmonic function etc. ) is beneficial but not strictly required for understanding the majority of the course.
- Practical exercises, which are coded in Python, help the deeper understanding of the learnt techniques. Basic Python skills are beneficial here
Description
This course is the first part of an extensive course series about the most versatile medical imaging modality, MRI, and magnetic resonance in general. In the course we are going to discuss what magnetic resonance is and how it works in real life from magnets and coils through spins and tissue parameters to RF pulses and processing tools.
The topics aim to give a broad and detailed overview about the principles of both theoretical and practical magnetic resonance as well as cover the vast majority of the RF pulse types and techniques used today.
While some math, engineering or science background is definitely beneficial none of these are essential. The course is designed to start from the very basics and gradually reach a level of understanding which can readily be used in practice and extended with self-teaching later on.
The course is structured as follows:
Introduction - This introductory lecture gives a brief overview about the entirety of magnetic resonance from the physical phenomenon to the signal detection.
Signal & Contrast types - MRI is the most versatile medical imaging tool in terms of achievable contrast types and tissue information. This lecture discusses some of the most important ones of these as well as the principles of MR signal generation
Relaxation parameters and simple sequences - Here we discuss relaxation in details including how to measure the relaxation time constants and we introduce the pulse acquire and the spin echo pulse sequences and the most often used contrast weightings
Detection and spectra - This session covers the physical principles of signal detection by means of RF coils as well as the main processing of MR, the Fourier-transform. Then we discuss the properties of the resulted complex spectra
Steady-state sequences - The fastest and highest SNR yielding sequences are the steady-state sequences. This session gives an extensive overview about their properties, pros and cons as well as the generated signal
RF pulse - Introduction - An introductory lecture about the RF pulses in general and more specifically the low flip-angle approximation-based Fourier pulse design
RF pulses - SLR design - The lecture introduces the concept of the SLR design as a tool for larger flip-angle pulse design. The different SLR filter types that yield RF pulse types are discussed in details
RF pulses - Adiabatic pulses - In this section the family of adiabatic pulses are discussed by introducing the principle behind adiabatic rotation and the most often used pulse types
RF pulses with gradient - The last session about RF pulses introduces the topic of slice selection as well as the spectral-spatial pulses for advanced excitation
RF coils and the Transmit-Receive chain - The closing lecture of the course gives a broad overview about the path the RF waves traverse from pulse generation to acquired signal processing. The principles of RF coils are also discussed via the example of surface coil building closing the course with some practical tips
Quizzes: Test your knowledge by taking the quizzes at the end of each lesson. If you pass, well done! If you don't, you can review the videos and notes again or ask for help in the Q&A section.
Coding exercises: Some of the courses come with coding exercises to help the understanding of the given topic. These are implemented in Python. Probably the easiest way is to run them in VisualStudio Code or Jupyter Notebook. If you have no experience with python neither have a coding environment set up open the files with a text editor and copy paste the content to the online python editor on replit and press run. Please read the comments thoroughly throughout the files as the comments contain instructions and useful information
Who this course is for:
- Mainly for those who are interested in or are currently studying magnetic resonance and wish to have a deeper understanding of both the theoretical and the practical aspects.
- Everyone who is interested in a cool application of math and science (such background is not strictly required)
Instructor
- 4.2 Instructor Rating
- 53 Reviews
- 249 Students
- 2 Courses
I really believe that less is more, and nothing can replace the deep understanding of the fundamentals. Once you have that under your belt you can extend your knowledge to any area that particularly peaks your interest. That's why I try to put a lot of emphasis on the essential basics in my courses and hope to share these with you too so that you can continue your own journey!