[Value and importance of magnetic resonance tomography]

After 14 years of clinical practice, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has gained an important place among the imaging methods. For a physician not permanently occupied with these problems, the differential indications of MRI compared to ultrasound and computertomography (CT) are difficult to understand. Knowledge of capabilities and limitations, benefits and drawbacks, contraindications, future trends, and, in an era of shortage of financial resources, knowledge of some essential economic aspects will be helpful. This publication tries to present these aspects in a compact form were singular problems of MRI diagnostics can only partly be dealt with.