Magnetic resonance imaging

This paper reports on the difficulties of magnetic resonance imaging of the spleen. Most important, motion artifacts can severely decrease image quality in the abdomen and commonly result in nondiagnostic MRI. New techniques to suppress motion artifacts are currently in clinical investigation and have been shown to improve image quality. Second, splenic neoplasms have been difficult to detect because of the small difference in tumor-spleen relaxation times and proton densities. Administration of particulate MRI contrast agents, such as ferrite, has proved to increase tumor-spleen contrast greatly and thus increase tumor detectability. Although the spleen has not been studied as extensively as other abdominal organs, these recent advances are expected to increase the utility of MRI for detecting splenic disease