Flow Artifacts - Video Lesson

Hey everybody. Welcome to today's lesson on artifacts in MRI. This lesson focuses on flow artifacts, which arise from the movement of spins, most often blood or cerebrospinal fluid or CSF during image acquisition. Flow artifacts are a common and clinically significant source of image degradation in MRI. Understanding why flow artifacts occur, how they present, and how different flow conditions affect signal behavior is essential for MRI technologists. This knowledge allows you to recognize artifacts, distinguish them from pathology, and apply appropriate imaging strategies to minimize their impact. Let's get started. Flow artifacts are image distortions or signal intensity variations caused by moving protons during the MRI pulse sequence. Stationary spins are affected predictably by gradients, while moving protons experience different strengths as they move across the gradient. As a result, flowing spins may be misregistered, inconsistently excited, or improperly rephased.