Subtraction imaging: Applications for nonvascular abdominal MRI

OBJECTIVE. In this article we will illustrate the role of subtraction imaging for abdominal MRI applications. CONCLUSION. Subtraction imaging has multiple applications for imaging the mediastinum, abdomen, and pelvis. Removing any preexisting signal of T1 unenhanced images causes contrast enhancement within a mass to become more conspicuous on subtracted sequences. This is helpful when evaluating a lesion with high signal on unenhanced T1-weighted sequences, where visual detection of enhancement can be difficult on conventional MRI.