MR imaging of the gastrointestinal tract

The use of T1-weighted sequences with reduced artifacts such as breath-hold gradient echo and fat-suppressed spin echo imaging has rendered MR imaging an effective technique for the evaluation of bowel disease. Various malignancies are depicted on MR images with diagnostic information comparable to CT images; concurrent evaluation for liver metastases are better performed by MR imaging. The high sensitivity for uptake of intravenous gadolinium suggests that MR imaging may play an important role in the evaluation of inflammatory bowel disease.