Proceedings of The British Institute of Radiology Functional insights from magnetic resonance, February 17, 1988

Radiological methods provide a spatial mapping of one or more of the physical properties of the body which is portrayed as an image. This can then be translated into the underlying anatomical substrate and sometimes functional information is also available. The effects of disease are recognizable interms of structural and functional change outside the normal range, and information about both may be required in order to make a management decision.In valvular heart disease, for example, morphological changes in chamber anatomy must be supplemented by information about the abnormal flow across the implicated valve and the impact this has on chamber function.