Overview of MRI and basic principles -- RF excitation and signal generation -- Tissue characteristics and contrast agents: PD, T1, and T2 -- Echoes -- Spatial localization and introduction to k-space -- k-space -- More k-space: the relationship between k-space and the image -- Fast scanning and k-space shortcuts -- Selectively saturating, nulling, and exciting protons -- Safety and cardiovascular MRI -- Flow -- Time-of-flight MR angiography -- Phase contrast MRI: flow quantification and MRA -- Gadolinium-enhanced MR angiography -- ECG gating -- Cardiac imaging planes -- Black-blood imaging -- Cine gradient echo imaging -- Tissue characterization in the heart -- Phase contrast flow quantification in the heart -- Ischemic cardiac disease -- Coronary artery imaging

This text is designed to equip radiologists with a firm working knowledge of the physical principles underlying cardiovascular MR image generation. Emphasis is on practical applications of MR physics in customizing and optimizing imaging sequences and protocols and minimizing artifacts