Mri: The Basics

Rating:
Summary: Passable introductory book
Review: "MRI:the Basics" was my first introduction to MRI. It did get me into the field quickly. However, there are some major flaws in this book.

The chapters on frequency/phase encoding is badly written. The basic mechanics is described in an imprecise way that it is misleading, if not completely wrong at some points. This leads to inconsistencies in many places, and makes the treatment of k-space unsatisfying. (That's pretty much all the major important topics in basic MRI!)

I still recommend it to newbies. But always consult a more technical book (for example, Liang and Lauterbur) when in doubt.

Rating:
Summary: Passable introductory book
Review: "MRI:the Basics" was my first introduction to MRI. It did get me into the field quickly. However, there are some major flaws in this book.

The chapters on frequency/phase encoding is badly written. The basic mechanics is described in an imprecise way that it is misleading, if not completely wrong at some points. This leads to inconsistencies in many places, and makes the treatment of k-space unsatisfying. (That's pretty much all the major important topics in basic MRI!)

I still recommend it to newbies. But always consult a more technical book (for example, Liang and Lauterbur) when in doubt.

Rating:
Summary: It has the basics all alright...
Review: My feeling about this book is mixed. It was my first introductory book to MRI, and it did get me into the field very quickly. However the chapter that describes frequency encoding and phase encoding is so badly written (the description is misleading, if not completely wrong at some points) that the treatment of k-space does not make sense. This makes the understanding of more advanced pulse sequences difficult, if not impossible without extra sources of information.

Since there really isn't that many choices for a beginner, this is a passable book. Just remember that the signal processing part of the book is inconsistent and misleading. Always consult a more technical book (for example, Liang and Lauterbur) when in doubt.

Rating:
Summary: User-freindly guide to the complexities of MRI
Review: This 300 page paper back has 400 high quality and relevant illustrations (mainly diagrams and line drawings) that greatly help to illustrate some otherwise difficult-to-grasp concepts. The emphasis is on the how and why of magnetic resonance imaging, not on the interpretation of the images.

The authors have successfully negotiated the narrow difference between a book that is filled with mind numbing details and one which is over simplified with a trivial approach. While not getting bogged down in minutia that are endlessly fascinating to physicists, but demoralizing to many physicians, they haven't avoided the concepts which form the basis of MRI such as, K-space, Fourier transform and pulse sequences. Nor have newer scanning techniques that involve tissue suppression and MRA been slighted.

At the end of each chapter a succinct "Key Points" section emphasizes the most relevant features of the preceeding chapter. Also included at the end of each chapter is a self-assessment quiz (with answers at the end of the book).

This book is excellent for MR technologists, radiology residents in board preparation and non-radiolgist physicians who want to get up-to-speed in this exciting and rapidly growing subdiscipline of diagnostic imaging.

If this book were a movie, I would give it an enthusiastic, "Two Thumbs Up."

Rating:
Summary: User-freindly guide to the complexities of MRI
Review: This 300 page paper back has 400 high quality and relevant illustrations (mainly diagrams and line drawings) that greatly help to illustrate some otherwise difficult-to-grasp concepts. The emphasis is on the how and why of magnetic resonance imaging, not on the interpretation of the images.

The authors have successfully negotiated the narrow difference between a book that is filled with mind numbing details and one which is over simplified with a trivial approach. While not getting bogged down in minutia that are endlessly fascinating to physicists, but demoralizing to many physicians, they haven't avoided the concepts which form the basis of MRI such as, K-space, Fourier transform and pulse sequences. Nor have newer scanning techniques that involve tissue suppression and MRA been slighted.

At the end of each chapter a succinct "Key Points" section emphasizes the most relevant features of the preceeding chapter. Also included at the end of each chapter is a self-assessment quiz (with answers at the end of the book).

This book is excellent for MR technologists, radiology residents in board preparation and non-radiolgist physicians who want to get up-to-speed in this exciting and rapidly growing subdiscipline of diagnostic imaging.

If this book were a movie, I would give it an enthusiastic, "Two Thumbs Up."

Rating:
Summary: far fewer holes than Mitchell MRI
Review: Though there are a lot of equations in this book, it is far more conceptual than the widely accepted Mitchell MRI book, and not as mathematically oriented as you would think at first glance. If you are starting out in MRI, read this book first and you'll have a good foundation for further learning. Mitchell's book, on the other hand, is too confusing for the first timer, and might cause you significant confusion when you move to other MR physics books because you are missing the fundamentals. Overall I highly recommend this book to any M.D. who wants to know fundamental MRI physics.