Technical artifacts in magnetic resonance imaging.

Various artifacts of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) typically associated with currently available imaging techniques such as projection reconstruction and two-dimensional fourier transform (2D-FT) are described and illustrated. Examples of MRI artifacts were obtained with an imaging unit with a super conducting magnet operated at .15 Tesla and .27 Tesla with corresponding proton resonance frequency of 6.4 MHz and 11.25 MHz. The .15 Tesla images were obtained using projection reconstruction and the .27 Tesla using the 2D-FT method. Instrument related artifacts include those due to direct current (DC), projection, gradient offset, active shimming, phase encoding, and pulse sequencing. Other often encountered artifacts are related to the patient. These include those due to motion, ferromagnetic effect, and tissue contents. The cause of these artifacts and how (if possible) they may be eliminated or minimized is discussed.