Academic Catalog

R T 71: ADVANCED CLINICAL EXPERIENCE: MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING

Foothill College Course Outline of Record

Foothill College Course Outline of Record
Heading Value
Effective Term: Summer 2025
Units: 14
Hours: 16 lecture, 480 laboratory per quarter (496 total per quarter)
40 hours clinical laboratory per week for 12 weeks, with 16 hours of didactic content.
Prerequisite: Current ARRT and CRT Certification as a Radiologic Technologist; R T 62A and 62C.
Degree & Credit Status: Degree-Applicable Credit Course
Foothill GE: Non-GE
Transferable: CSU
Grade Type: Letter Grade Only
Repeatability: Not Repeatable

Student Learning Outcomes

  • Demonstrate proper equipment manipulation and assist in the performance of magnetic resonance imaging procedures, applying appropriate patient care and magnetic safety principles in the clinical setting.
  • Critique and distinguish relevant sectional anatomy and pathology related to magnetic resonance imaging.

Description

This course focuses on patient care, safety, image production, and procedures related to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), as well as a clinical practicum in a magnetic resonance department. Practical experience is implemented to expose the post-graduate radiologic technology student to the principles of MRI, with emphasis on mastery of the knowledge, insight, and skills required to perform MRI procedures.

Course Objectives

The student will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate knowledge in magnet safety for the patient, personnel, and self.
  2. Demonstrate application of knowledge and understanding in the proper use of the MRI equipment.
  3. Adhere to standards of attendance, punctuality, and dependability.
  4. Conduct themselves in a professional manner.
  5. Apply theory to practice by exhibiting ongoing, satisfactory job performance skills.
  6. Select proper scanning techniques and patient positioning as outlined by the department protocols.
  7. Demonstrate knowledge and application of various patient care techniques.
  8. Differentiate between normal and abnormal sectional anatomy as it relates to MR imaging.
  9. Critique and evaluate MR images for good diagnostic quality.
  10. Prepare a case study presentation based on literature search and clinical experience.

Course Content

  1. Safety issues in MRI
    1. MRI screening and safety
      1. Screening and education
        1. Implants
        2. Ferrous foreign bodies
        3. Medical conditions
        4. Prior procedures
        5. Topical or externally applied items
    2. Electromagnetic fields
      1. Static field
      2. Radiofrequency field
      3. Gradient field
    3. Equipment
      1. Placement of conductors
      2. Cryogen safety
      3. Ancillary equipment
    4. Environment
      1. Climate control
      2. Designated MR safety zones
      3. Gauss lines
      4. Emergency procedures
  2. Physical principles of image formation
    1. Instrumentation
      1. Electromagnetism
      2. Static magnet
      3. Radiofrequency (RF) system
      4. Gradient system
    2. Fundamentals
      1. Nuclear magnetism
      2. Tissue characteristics
      3. Spatial resolution
    3. Artifacts
      1. Aliasing
      2. Gibbs
      3. Chemical shift
      4. Chemical misregistration
      5. Magnetic susceptibility
      6. RF
      7. Motion and flow
      8. Partial volume averaging
      9. Cross-talk
      10. Cross-excitation
      11. Moire pattern
      12. Parallel imaging artifacts
      13. Eddy current
      14. Dielectric effect
    4. Quality control
      1. Slice thickness
      2. Spatial resolution
      3. Contrast resolution
      4. SNR (signal to noise ratio)
      5. Center frequency
      6. Transmit gain
      7. Geometric accuracy
      8. Equipment inspection
  3. Punctuality and dependability
    1. Clinic time reporting
    2. Absenteeism
    3. Communicating whereabouts appropriately
  4. Professional conduct
    1. Taking initiative
    2. Communicating effectively
    3. Conducting oneself in a professional manner
  5. Job performance
    1. Scanning according to protocol
    2. Planning and organizing work efficiently
    3. Being alert and interested in examinations
    4. Reading and understanding requisition
    5. Communicating effectively
    6. Completing exam in a reasonable amount of time
  6. Scanning techniques
    1. Patient positioning
    2. Pulse sequences
    3. Coil selection
    4. Documentation of procedure
    5. Imaging parameters
      1. Repetition time
      2. Echo time
      3. Inversion time
      4. Number of signal averages
      5. Flip angle
      6. Field of view
      7. Matrix
      8. Pixel
      9. Voxel
      10. Number of slices
      11. Slice thickness
      12. Phase and frequency
      13. Echo train length
      14. Effective echo time
      15. Bandwidth
      16. Concatenations
      17. B-value
      18. Velocity encoding
    6. Image contrast
      1. T1 weighted
      2. T2 weighted
      3. PD weighted
      4. T2* weighted
      5. Diffusion weighted imaging
      6. Susceptibility weighted imaging
    7. Imaging options
      1. 2-D and 3-D
      2. Slice order
      3. Spatial saturation pulse/band
      4. Gradient moment nulling
      5. Suppression techniques
      6. Physiologic gating and triggering
      7. In-phase and out-of-phase
      8. Rectangular field of view
      9. Anti-aliasing
      10. Parallel imaging
      11. Filtering
  7. Patient care
    1. Patient Interactions and management
    2. Requisition/medical record evaluation
    3. Room preparation
    4. Patient assessment
      1. Patient history/allergies
      2. Physical assistance and monitoring
        1. Patient transfer techniques
        2. Sedated patients
        3. Claustrophobic patients
      3. Medical emergencies
    5. CDC standard precautions
    6. Infection control
    7. Patient discharge/post-procedure instructions
  8. Procedures
    1. Neurological
      1. Head and neck
        1. Brain
        2. Brain for Multiple Sclerosis
        3. Brain for seizure
        4. Infant brain (less than one year old)
        5. Brain perfusion
        6. Cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) flow
        7. Brain spectroscopy
        8. Internal auditory canals (IACs)
        9. Pituitary
        10. Orbits
        11. Cranial nerves
        12. Sinuses
        13. Soft tissue neck
        14. Vascular head
        15. Vascular neck
    2. Spine
      1. Cervical
      2. Thoracic
      3. Lumbar
      4. Sacroiliac (SI) joints
      5. Sacrum-coccyx
      6. Total spine
      7. Lumbar plexus
    3. Body
      1. Thorax
        1. Chest (noncardiac)
        2. Breast
        3. Vascular thorax
        4. Brachial plexus
      2. Abdomen
        1. Liver
        2. Pancreas
        3. Adrenals
        4. Kidneys
        5. Enterography
        6. Vascular abdomen
        7. Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatagraphy (MRCP)
    4. Pelvis
      1. ​Soft tissue pelvis (e.g., bladder, rectum)
      2. Female soft tissue pelvis
      3. Male soft tissue pelvis
      4. Vascular penis
    5. Musculoskeletal
      1. Temporomandibular joints
      2. Sternum
      3. Sternoclavicular joints
      4. Shoulder
      5. Long bones (upper extremity)
      6. Elbow
      7. Wrist
      8. Hand
      9. Fingers (non-thumb)
      10. Thumb
      11. Bony pelvis
      12. Hip
      13. Long bones (lower extremity)
      14. Knee
      15. Ankle
      16. Foot
      17. Arthrogram
      18. Vascular extremities
      19. Soft tissue (e.g., tumor, infection)
  9. Image display/quality
    1. Data acquisition, processing, and storage
      1. Spin echo
      2. Inversion recovery
      3. Gradient echo
      4. Echo planar imaging
      5. Diffusion weighted imaging
      6. Susceptibility weighted imaging
      7. Perfusion
      8. Spectroscopy
    2. Data manipulation
      1. K-space
      2. Fast Fourier transformation
      3. Nyquist theorum
      4. Postprocessing
    3. Informatics
      1. Hard/electronic copy
      2. Archive
      3. Picture archiving and communication system (PACS)/medical image management and processing system (MIMPS)
      4. Security and confidentiality
      5. Networking
  10. Case study presentation
    1. Topic selection
    2. Presentation development
    3. Oral presentation

Lab Content

  1. Radiologic technology (magnetic resonance imaging) clinical practice
    1. Imaging procedures
    2. Data acquisition
    3. Data processing
    4. Physical principles of image formation
    5. Patient care and safety in a clinical setting

Special Facilities and/or Equipment

1. Clinical setting: magnetic resonance imaging equipment.
2. Computer/internet access for online component.

Method(s) of Evaluation

Methods of Evaluation may include but are not limited to the following:

Presentation project: case study
Clinical performance evaluation

Method(s) of Instruction

Methods of Instruction may include but are not limited to the following:

Discussion
Demonstration
Clinical practice

Representative Text(s) and Other Materials

Westbrook, Catherine. Handbook of MRI Technique. 2021.

Westbrook, Catherine, and John Talbot. MRI in Practice. 2018.

Hashemi, Ray. MRI The Basics. 2017.

Although some of these texts are older than the suggested "5 years or newer" standard, they remain seminal texts in this area of study.

Types and/or Examples of Required Reading, Writing, and Outside of Class Assignments

  1. Reading assignments as required by the Magnetic Resonance Imaging department.
  2. Development of a case study presentation.

Discipline(s)

Radiological Technology