MRI artifacts
Updates to Article Attributes
MRI artefactsartifacts are numerous and give an insight into the physics behind each sequence. Some artifacts affect the quality of the MRI exam while others do not affect the diagnostic quality but may be confused with pathology.
When encountering an unfamiliar artifact, it is useful to systematically examine general features of the artifact to try and understand its general class. These features include:
- type of sequence, e.g. fast spin echo, gradient, volumetric acquisition
- direction of phase and frequency
- fat or fluid attenuation
- presence of anatomy outside the image field
- presence of metallic foreign bodies
Classification of the artifact type may give one an idea about how to try to fix it.
The artifacts
Many artifacts have a characteristic appearance and with experience they can be readily identified.
MR hardware and room shielding
- zipper artifact
- herringbone artifact
- zebra stripes
- Moire fringes
- central point artifact
- RF overflow artifacts
- inhomogeneity artifacts
- shading artifact
MR software
- slice-overlap artifact (also known as cross-talk artifact)
- cross excitation
Patient and physiologic motion
Tissue heterogeneity and foreign bodies
- black boundary artifact
- magic angle effect
- magnetic susceptibility artifact
- chemical shift artifact
- dielectric effect artifact
Fourier transform and Nyquist sampling theorem
Artifacts are caused by a variety of factors that may be patient related such as voluntary and physiologic motion, metallic implants or foreign bodies. Finite sampling, k-space encoding, and Fourier transformation may cause aliasing and Gibbs artifact. Characteristics of pulse sequences may cause black boundary, Moire, and phase-encoding artifacts. Hardware issues may cause central point and RF overflow artifacts.
-<p><strong>MRI artefacts</strong> are numerous and give an insight into the physics behind each sequence. Some artifacts affect the quality of the MRI exam while others do not affect the diagnostic quality but may be confused with pathology.</p><p>When encountering an unfamiliar artifact, it is useful to systematically examine general features of the artifact to try and understand its general class. These features include:</p><ol>- +<p><strong>MRI artifacts</strong> are numerous and give an insight into the physics behind each sequence. Some artifacts affect the quality of the MRI exam while others do not affect the diagnostic quality but may be confused with pathology.</p><p>When encountering an unfamiliar artifact, it is useful to systematically examine general features of the artifact to try and understand its general class. These features include:</p><ol>
-<li><a href="/articles/magic-angle-effect-mri-artifact">magic angle effect</a></li>- +<li><a href="/articles/magic-angle-effect-mri-artifact-1">magic angle effect</a></li>
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