MR imaging of thoracic trauma

Although MR imaging and MR angiography should not be considered a primary study for patients sustaining blunt or penetrating thoracic trauma, it has achieved importance as an ancillary problem-solving modality. In general, the authors have found MR imaging to be a useful ancillary study to confirm or exclude diaphragm injury, if spiral CT scan with reformations are equivocal; to help assess the aorta and mediastinum in cases of potential injury that are not clarified by CT scan or thoracic angiography; and to identify the true origin of trauma-related masses that may simulate thoracic neoplasms.