MRIcontrast [iPad]

MRIcontrast™ is a truly interactive simulator for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The app is aimed at healthcare professionals working with MRI, who want to learn how scan parameters affect the MR image.

MRIcontrast™ visualizes realistic MRI images from various body parts and allows the user to change scan parameters (repetition time, echo time, flip angle, and many others). Also the magnetic field strength can be altered (1.5T or 3T). Any parameter change results in an immediate, real-time update of the MR image.

To facilitate for MRI-beginners, a built-in tutorial explains the meaning of each parameter and how it will affect the MR image. All imaging protocols are explained in detail, and guides are provided of how to learn and explore the various phenomena that can be studied.

MRIcontrast™ is delivered with a gallery of common sequence types (T1-, T2- and PD-weighted spin echo, T2*-weighted gradient echo with and without RF-spoiling, steady-state free precession (SSFP), balanced SSFP, inversion recovery, turbo spin echo, echo planar imaging etc), from which the user can explore the effects of changing the preset parameters.

In addition to viewing the images, the sound of the scanner can be played, and it also changes depending on the scan parameter settings.

Image features and MRI phenomena that currently are visualized in MRIcontrast™:
- Contrast as function of TR, TE and flip angle
- Signal-to-noise ratio
- Fat/water in-phase and opposed-phase
- Chemical shift artefact
- Different image contrast and SNR at 3T vs. 1.5T
- T2*-relaxation
- Gradient echo imaging with and without RF-spoiling, including SSFP-Echo
- Echo-planar (EPI) geometrical distortions
- bSSFP (True FISP) banding artifacts