TwinTree Insert

Peter A. Rinck

About this Book
Foreword


"Why, some­times I’ve be­lieved as many as six im­pos­sib­le things before break­fast."
Lewis Caroll 'Alice Through the Look­ing Glass'.


e like books — printed on paper, if possible with a beautiful hard­cover bind­ing. Thus, putting one of the standard textbooks on the in­ter­net was a chal­lenge for us.

For this digital edition we have up­dated and optimized contents, lay­out and the qua­li­ty of the fi­gu­res. We also made the visual pre­sen­ta­tion lighter to produce a more plea­sant, informative and efficient user experience. We hope that the looks of the real text­book have not been lost com­ple­tely — and, at the same time, that some of the ad­van­ta­ges of e-learning bear fruit.

As with everything in life, MR imaging does not only re­quire know­ledge of facts but also back­ground in­for­ma­tion for decision making. Therefore we have linked some subjective, critical, and (per­so­nal) opinion-oriented sect­ions, intended to off­set the technical nature of the teaching sections and pro­vide some insights into more prac­tical questions faced by MR users.

spaceholder red600If you want to learn something about mag­ne­tic re­so­nan­ce imag­ing or its ap­pli­ca­tions choose your topic of interest. If you want to learn it from scratch start with Chapter 1; and if you want to air your brain, read the comments that are scattered in between and flagged with a writer's quill:

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This one, for instance, tells the story of how it all began.
Once upon a time, not so long ago …

inkpot The 50th anniversary

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spaceholder red600The first version of this primer — a little booklet — was written at Paul C. Lau­ter­bur's la­bo­ra­to­ry on Long Is­land out­side New York in the ear­ly 1980s. Lauterbur was the father of MR imaging; twen­ty years later he re­ceiv­ed the No­bel Prize. The text was intended to be used as the Basic Textbook for EMRF, the Euro­pean Mag­ne­tic Re­so­nan­ce Fo­rum.

After Lauterbur saw the first edition, he commented:

"It looks like a fine book, espe­ci­al­ly for re­si­dents, nurses, and tech­ni­cians."

Initially we thought this state­ment was not very en­cou­rag­ing, but in hind­sight this was exactly what we had meant to write — though our target audience also in­clud­ed leaders of research in­sti­tu­tions and uni­ver­si­ty pro­fes­sors, to give them a life­line for their teach­ing and re­search. We worked on it for another twen­ty years — and fi­nal­ly Lau­ter­bur found the last edi­tion he read before his death "gratifying".

The textbook has received outstanding reviews in major scientific jour­nals. They were an incentive for us to continue the project and try to improve it. Some reviews of ear­lier (print) editions are col­lect­ed on this page.


TextbookMovie

This is the fourteenth edition of Mag­ne­tic Re­so­nance in Me­di­cine — and its se­venth e-Learn­ing edi­tion. It has been revised, enlarged, and adap­ted for e-Learn­ing.

Earlier editions have been translated into Por­tu­guese, Spanish, Italian, Ger­man, French, Polish, Russian, Ja­pa­ne­se, and Chinese.

At present, the on­line edi­tion will be available in Eng­lish only. A new Spanish e-textbook edition will be re­leas­ed in 2024.

Over the years, the e-textbooks have gained a world­wide readership.



spaceholder redCelebrating the 40th anniversary in 2024 will be a plea­sant occasion. The child had grown up, become an adult or, in our case — a rather successful standard text­book. The reviews and public reaction to the book were extremely positive. The editor, the co-authors, and the involved in­sti­tu­tions — The Round Table Foun­da­tion and the European Mag­ne­tic Resonance Forum — aim to pub­lish high quality teach­ing material. Our goal is to promote honest and knowledgeable in­for­mation of real significance; for this reason, we are com­mit­ted to peer review and edi­to­rial in­de­pen­den­ce.

MRI Questionmark

spaceholder redIn magnetic resonance imaging beginners and even the more know­ledge­able often have to believe what they read or hear about the topic — and regularly things seem to be impossible. Sometimes it seems like a fairy tale. This site tries to tell the tale and lead its readers from be­liev­ing to understanding.

They should be able to acquire a basic know­ledge which enables them to pursue studies of their own and to cope with some of the most common problems, such as image con­trast and arti­facts or questions concerning poss­ible ha­zards to patients — in other words, the text pre­sents the nuts and bolts; no more, no less.

The main author and the contributors did not at­tempt to cover the field com­ple­tely nor to be ex­haust­ive in the topics discussed, as the field of magnetic re­so­nance still is in a per­ma­nent stage of development and therefore changing year by year, although the quantity of significant additions to the fun­da­men­tals has slacken­ed during the last twenty-five years and the quality of many scientific contributions at conferences and in journals has deteriorated.

There are always new contraptions, but we are not interested in certain gadgets or trendy "apps" of com­mer­cial ma­chi­nes, and won't men­tion nor describe them.

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Publish today …

inkpot … and perish today

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spaceholder red600We wish to express our appreciation to numerous colleagues who, as ex­perts in their field, have shared their knowledge and helped us with con­struc­tive criticism and helpful suggestions. There is a long list of contributors to this and ear­lier ver­sions, among them Atle Bjørnerud, Patricia de Francisco, Steven E. Harms, Jürgen Hennig, Richard A. Jones, Jørn Kværness, Robert N. Muller, Gunvor Robertsen, Timothy E. Southon, and Geir Torheim. Their support, ideas, dedication, and feedback have added much to the quality of this work. We are also indebted to our friends who took care of some of the translations of the printed version, among them Andrea Giovagnoni for the Italian edition, Va­len­tin Sinitsyn for the latest Russian edition, Luis Martí-Bonmatí and Ángel Alberich-Bayarri for an earlier Spanish edition, and Qiuju Zhou for the latest Chinese edition.

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For a long time we have discussed what is the best choice:
Going for a printed textbook or an e-textbook for tablets?
Our latest answer is published here. The question re­mains:
Will this remain the final answer?

inkpot Tablets versus textbooks

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If you find any mistakes in this book, rest assured that they were left in­ten­tio­nally so as not to pro­voke the gods with something which is perfect. Still, we would be happy about your feedback. We hope that this textbook will be useful for you and that you will enjoy it. If you have comments or suggestions, please write to us.

Peter A. Rinck, Editor-in-Chief
on behalf of all contributors and collaborators