QUALITY ASSURANCE

LECTURE NO. 7

SECOND SEMESTER
MSC PROGRAM

10/20/2022
 PRINCIPLES OF MRI

IMAGE QUALITY &ARTIFACTS

 LECTURE OBJECTIVES

Evaluate and assess the MRI image quality

Evaluate and assess the MRI image artifact recognition.

 IMAGE QUALITY

The quality of an MR image depends on several factors:

Spatial resolution and image contrast

Signal to noise ratio and contrast to noise ratio

Artifacts
 SPATIAL RESOLUTION

• IS the ABILITY TO DISTINGUISH ONE STRUCTURE

FROM ANOTHER
• VOXEL VOLUME IS A DETERMINING FACTOR IN
SPATIAL RESOLUTION.
• WHEN REDUCING VOXEL VOLUME , SPATIAL
RESOLUTION WILL INCREASED.
• MAGNIFICATION CAN MAKE THE IMAGE APPEAR
BLURRY BECAUSE IT MAGNIFIES THE PIXEL .
 SIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO (SNR)

SNR = AMPLITUDE OF THE SIGNAL / AVERAGE

AMPLITUDE OF THE NOISE
THE SIGNAL IS THE VOLTAGE INDUCED IN THE
RECEIVER COIL BY THE PRECESSION OF THE NMV
THE NOISE IS GENERATED BY THE PRESENCE OF
THE PATIENT IN THE MAGNET, AND THE
BACKGROUND ELECTRICAL NOISE OF THE
SYSTEM
 FACTORS THAT AFFECT SNR

Proton density of the area under examination

Voxel volume

TR, TE

NEX (number of excitations)

Receive bandwidth

Coil type
 PROTON DENSITY

AREAS WITH LOW PROTON DENSITY (PD)

PRODUCE LOW SIGNAL AND THEREFORE LOW SNR
E.G. LUNGS, CORTICAL BONE
AREAS WITH HIGH PD HAVE HIGH SIGNAL & HIGH
SNR
E.G. BLADDER, RENAL PELVIS
 VOXEL VOLUME

Large voxels have more nuclei therefore high signal

and high SNR

Small voxels have less nuclei therefore low signal and

low SNR
NUMBER OF SIGNAL AVERAGES (NSA) OR NEX

Is the number of times data is collected with the same amplitude of phase

encoding slope.

Increase in NEX increase the amount of data stored in each line of k-space.

The data consists of both signal and noise.

The noise increases randomly and the increase of signal is not random.
 RECEIVE BANDWIDTH

Is the range of frequencies that are sampled during the

application of readout gradient.

Reducing the receive bandwidth results in less noise

being sampled relative to signal.

 TYPE OF COIL

The type of coil used affects the amount of signal received and therefore the SNR.

The position of the coil is also very important for maximizing SNR.

To induce maximum signal, the coil must be positioned in the transverse plane

perpendicular to B0 .

Angling the coil, as sometimes happens when using surface coils, results in a

reduction of SNR
 CONTRAST TO NOISE RATIO ( CNR )

defined as the difference in the SNR between two adjacent

areas.

It is controlled by the same factors that affect SNR.

• FACTORS THAT INCREASE CNR
• 1/ USING A T2 WEIGHTED IMAGE
• 2/ USING CONTRAST AGENTS
• 3/ USING CHEMICAL PRE - SATURATION TECHNIQUE
• 4/ USING MAGNETIZATION TRANSFER CONTRAST
(MTC)
 QUALITY CONTROL AND QUALITY
ASSURANCE TESTS

the American college of radiology (acr) requires a series of

measurements on weekly/annual basis for a site to be

accredited.

Quality comes from many stages including procurement,

protocolling, QC and reporting.

Documentation (electronically ideally) is best

accomplished with automated programs with clearly

visible action triggers for measurements that exceed

acceptable limits.
 QC ANNUAL TEST

ACR requires that all multi-channel RF coils be checked

at least annually

ACR also requires magnetic field homogeneity (shim)

be checked annually
ACR PHANTOM
 ARTIFACT
• AN IMAGE ARTIFACT IS ANY FEATURE WHICH APPEARS IN AN IMAGE WHICH
IS NOT PRESENT IN THE ORIGINAL IMAGED OBJECT.

• AN IMAGE ARTIFACT IS SOMETIME THE RESULT OF IMPROPER OPERATION

OF THE IMAGER, AND OTHER TIMES A CONSEQUENCE OF NATURAL
PROCESSES OR PROPERTIES OF THE HUMAN BODY.

• MANY CAUSES:

• EQUIPMENT MALFUNCTIONS

• ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

• PATIENT MOTION

• BODY COMPOSITION
 ARTIFACTS
Chemical shift

Chemical miss registration

Magnetic susceptibility

Motion artefact

Zipper artefact

Phase wrap/aliasing

Phase miss mapping

Truncation Artifact

Shading Artifact

Cross excitation

Cross talk
Artifact Cause

RF Offset and Failure of the RF detection circuitry

Quadrature Ghost

RF Noise Failure of the RF shielding

Bo Inhomogeneity Metal object distorting the Bo field

Gradient Failure in a magnetic field gradient

Motion Movement of the imaged object during the

sequence

Wrap Around Improperly chosen field of view

Gibbs Ringing Small image matrix and sharp signal discontinuities in an

image
 1-ALIASING ARTIFACT

when signal form a voxel is represented in the wrong pixel.

it occurs when the field of view (fov) is smaller than the body-part being

imaged. the part of the body that lies beyond the edge of the fov is projected on

to the other side of the image.

also known as ‘wrap-around” or “fold-over” artifact

ALIASING ARTIFACT CAUSED BY IMAGING
WITH TOO SMALL A FIELD OF VIEW.
 CHEMICAL SHIFT ARTIFACT

Chemical shift artefact is a displacement of signal between

fat and water along the frequency encoding axis of the

image caused by the dissimilar chemical environments of

fat and water

 APPEARANCE

Chemical shift artefact causes a dark edge at the interface

between fat and water.

example: area of kidneys where the water-filled kidneys

are surrounded by peri-renal fat.

 FACTORS THAT CONTROL CHEMICAL SHIFT

magnetic field strength: chemical shift artefact increases at

higher field strengths' .

the receive bandwidth: as the receive bandwidth is reduced,

fewer frequencies are mapped across the same number of

pixels. as a result chemical shift artefact increases

AXIAL T2 WEIGHTED IMAGES OF THE ABDOMEN. THE ARROW
DEMONSTRATES
CHEMICAL SHIFT ARTEFACT AT THE BORDER OF THE LEFT KIDNEY.
 REMEDY

Scan with a low field strength magnet.

Remove either the fat or water signal by the use of STIR.

Broaden the receive bandwidth.

 CHEMICAL MISREGISTRATION
ARTEFACT

Chemical misregistration is caused by the difference in

precessional frequency between fat and water that

results in their magnetic moments being in phase with

each other at certain times and out of phase at others.

 APPEARANCE

this Artifact mainly occurs along the phase axis and causes

a dark ring around structures that contain both fat and

water.
Axial incoherent (spoiled) GRE T1 weighted image acquired
with a TE when fat and water are out of phase.
 REMEDIES

• Use SE or FSE pulse sequences

• Use a TE that matches the periodicity of fat and water

so that the echo is generated when fat and water are in

phase.
 TRUNCATION ARTEFACT

It results from under sampling of data so that interfaces of high and

low signal are incorrectly presented on the image.

A common site of this artefact is in T1 sagittal imaging of the

cervical spine, where there is low signal from the CSF and high

signal from the spinal cord. This is specifically called Gibbs

artefact.
 APPEARANCE

Truncation artefact occurs in the phase direction only

and produces a low intensity band running through a

high intensity area.

SAGITTAL T1 IMAGE OF THE CERVICAL
SPINE, THE DARK LINE IN THE CORD IS A
TRUNCATION (GIBBS) ARTEFACT
 THE REMEDY

The under sampling of data must be avoided. This is

done by increasing the number of phase encoding

steps.
 MAGNETIC SUSCEPTIBILITY
ARTIFACT

Magnetic susceptibility artefact occurs because all

tissues magnetize to a different degree depending on

their magnetic characteristics.

 APPEARANCE

Distortion of the image together with large signal voids

Example: At the interface of the petrous bone and the brain.

Magnetic susceptibility can be used advantageously when

investigating haemorrhage or blood products, as the

presence of this artefact suggests that bleeding has

recently occurred.
sagittal gradient echo sequence of the knee. magnetic susceptibility
artefact degrades the image.
 REMEDY

Use SE or FSE pulse sequences that use RF re

phasing pulses.

Removing all metal items from the patient before the

examination
 MOTION ARTIFACT

any motion of the patient causes artefact. motion is

usually either involuntary or voluntary.

 THE REMEDY

Bowel motion can be reduced by giving the patient an antispasmodic

agent prior to the scan
Pulsation can be reduced by the use of special techniques such as pre-
saturation.
 ZIPPER ARTIFACT

Caused by an extraneous RF entering the room at a

specific frequency, and interfere with the inherently

weak signal coming from the patient. It is caused by

a leak in the RF shielding of the room.

 APPEARANCE

Zipper Artifact appears as a dense line on the

image at specific point.

 THE REMEDY

Call the engineer to locate the leak and repair it.

ZIPPER ARTEFACT SEEN AS A HORIZONTAL LINE ACROSS THE
IMAGE
 SHADING ARTIFACT

It produces a loss of signal intensity in one part of

the image.
 CAUSES

its main cause is the uneven excitation of nuclei within the patient due to rf

pulses applied at a flip angles other than 90 or 180 degrees.

It is also caused by abnormal loading on the coil or coupling of the coil at

one point.

It may occur with a large patient who touches one side of the body coil and

couples it at that point

Inhomogeneities in the main magnetic field

 THE REMEDY

• ENSURE THAT THE COIL IS LOADED

CORRECTLY
 FLOW AND MOTION

Artifacts Produced from nuclei that move during the acquisition of data
Flowing nuclei exhibit different contrast characteristics from their neighboring
stationary nuclei.
Originate primarily from nuclei in blood and CSF
The motion causes miss mapping of signals and results in a artifacts known as flow
motion artifacts or phase ghosting.
The causes of flow artifact are known as flow phenomena