[Clinical MR at 3 Tesla: current status]

Clinical MRI is mostly performed at field strengths up to 1.5 Tesla (T). Recently, approved clinical whole-body MR-systems with a field strength of 3 T became available. Its installation base is more rapidly growing than anticipated. While site requirements and operation of these systems do not differ substantially from systems with lower field strength, there are differences in practical applications. Imaging applications can use the gain in signal-to-noise for increased spatial resolution or gain in speed. This comes at a trade off in increased sensitivity to field inhomogeneities and changes in relaxation times, which lead to changes in image contrast. The benefit of high field for spectroscopy consists in increased signal-to-noise-ratio and improvement in frequency resolution. The increase in energy deposition necessitates the use of special strategies to reduce the specific absorption rate (SAR). This paper summarizes the current state of MR at 3 T.