Magnetic resonance imaging – unravelling the mystery

McConnell JF. 

J Small Anim Pract 2007;48:421-422.

The acceptance of advanced diagnostic imaging techniques has been a recent event in small animal practice. It is only 12 years since the first paper that included magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as part of case management (a case of a spinal meningeal sarcoma in a puppy) was published in the Journal of Small Animal Practice (Hopkins and others 1995). Advances in that time have been legion and MRI is now a routine part of investigation of disease in small animals.

A search on PubMed using the keywords ‘‘MRI’’ and ‘‘mag- netic resonance imaging’’ produces a list of 48 articles published in JSAP since that first report. More than three-quarters of these have been published since 2000. This issue of the JSAP, largely devoted to neurology and imaging, illustrates the importance of MRI in modern neurology.