Basic magnetic resonance imaging principles used for evaluating animal patients with neurologic disease.

The use of MRI in veterinary medicine is growing, because it provides excellent anatomic and pathologic detail. Acquiring a useful MRI study depends upon understanding basic MRI principles and choosing the correct pulse sequences. This article introduces the reader to principles of MRI, image contrast, and appropriate pulse sequence selection for imaging. Lastly, the article briefly describes diffusion imaging, magnetic resonance angiography, and chemical shift artifact. The fundamental topics addressed in this article are items that exotic animal practitioners using MRI should know and be able to put to immediate use.