Magnetic Resonance Imaging Protocols for the Horse

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging provides the opportunity to evaluate structures within the limbs and head that were previously unable to be visualized in live horses. MR imaging has also enabled osseous and soft tissue structures, visible with radiography and ultrasonography, to be evaluated in greater anatomic and physiologic detail. For MR imaging to provide the most accurate and useful information in horses, it is important that the examinations be standardized. It is also important that collection of the images be performed in the most time-efficient manner. This chapter outlines the imaging planes and sequence selection that are most useful when imaging the limbs and head of the horse using a 1.0 Tesla superconducting magnet with the horse under general anesthesia. With this system, imaging of the head, cranial cervical vertebrae, feet, pasterns, fetlocks, metacarpal and metatarsal regions, carpi, and tarsi is possible in the adult horse. In foals and miniature horses, it is possible to image more proximally on the limbs and more caudally in the cervical vertebrae.