Pictorial review: magnetic resonance imaging of colonic diverticulitis.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is rapidly emerging as a useful imaging modality for the evaluation of the gastrointestinal tract. Increasingly rapid sequences and improving hardware have significantly improved the visualisation of diseases of the colon. MRI has a major advantage over CT in that there is no ionising radiation. In our institution, MRI has increasingly been used as a complimentary imaging modality to CT in the diagnosis and evaluation of diverticulitis and its complications. In this review article, we illustrate the emerging role of MRI in the diagnosis and evaluation of colonic diverticulitis.