MRI nomenclature guidelines

MRI nomenclature guidelines help maintain uniformity across the site, and help readers get more out of your cases and articles.

Articles

MRI features in an article should follow the format under "Radiographic features".

MRI

Add a statement about general MRI features, then move into signal characteristics. 

These should be bold and use accepted acronyms (e.g. T1). If there is a single feature, the acronym should be followed by a colon, which should also be emboldened (e.g. T1: some feature). If there are multiple features or points to be made about a single sequence, then no colon should follow the acronym and instead then they should be listed as separate lines below the acronym. These should otherwise follow standard bulleted and numbered list guidelines. Below is an example which includes a number of additional style guides. 

• T1: single feature in line with emboldened colon
• T2
  • if multiple points then
  • use indented bullets
• T1 C+ (agent)
  • if standard gadolinium then it may be omitted, or abbreviated to "Gd".
  • otherwise include the specific hepatobiliary agent, blood pool agent or non-gadolinium contrast agent as appropriate
• IP/OP: in-phase and out-of-phase
• FLAIR: should be assumed to be T2-weighted and sometimes needs to be listed separately
• GRE/SWI: often these can be included together
• DWI/ADC: usually as a single heading, even if features are non-congruent
• MR spectroscopy: usually multiple lines, for each peak
• MR perfusion: usually multiple lines, for each parameter

Cases

When providing images in a case, it is acceptable to include the TR and TE values (and flip angle, if appropriate) in the "image/stack specific findings" section of case images. In fact, this may be desirable if the pulse sequence is atypical. Other technical data is also appropriate in this section (such as the phase time of an IP/OP sequence in milliseconds (ms)).

Other points:

• if the strength of the magnet is to be included, it should be noted in the "findings" section of a set of images
  • the field strength to be expressed in teslas, and usually abbreviated as 1.5 T, 3 T, etc. Note the space between the quantity and the letter. 
  • if a set of images contains images from different strength magnets, note this in "image/stack specific findings" 
• if providing a zoomed image of an MRI finding, provide the field of view (FOV) and matrix information in "image/stack specific findings" 
• try to provide the phase for images from dynamic contrast enhancement sequences
• if a special or non-standard coil is used for the image, it may be useful to note this in "image/stack specific findings" 

General points

• pulse sequence terminology including "weighted image" (e.g. "T2WIs") is acceptable in the body of articles and cases, but for the "Radiographic features" section, it is omitted
• avoid vendor-specific terms, whenever possible
• "FLAIR" is referred to as "T2/FLAIR"
• "STIR" does not require a pulse sequence designation