IN JUNE OF 1990, there was a meeting of more than one hundred liver imaging experts from around the world.
After numerous presentations about the different techniques available for hepatic imaging, many of which professed the virtues of magnetic resonance (MRI imagmg, the audience was asked, "Which test is the preferred method to look for metastases in the liver, CT [computed tomography] or MR imaging?" The overwhelming majority favored CT. It is, therefore, not surprising that MR imaging of the liver and the even more problematic gastrointestinal tract, pancreas, and spleen still constitutes only a small fraction of all MR imagmg examinations performed in either a private practice or academic setting. At New York University, where we have a major interest in body MR imaging, only 4% of the MR examinations from January 1989 to December 1990 were performed to evaluate the abdomen, and this includes many studies that were performed as part of research protocols rather than for clinical indications.
Despite an ever enlarging armamentarium of MR imaging tools for interrogation of the abdomen, almost everyone still relies primarily on spin-echo and inversion-recovery sequences in his or her daily clinical practice, and despite the perception of controversy in the literature about almost everything having to do with abdominal MR imaging, there is in fact a broad consensus about most issues. My purpose is to discuss the current clinical status of abdominal MR imaging and to offer an educated guess about its future.
GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT
The gastrointestinal tract remains relatively unexplored territory for MR imagmg. Suitable oral contrast agents and fast imaging techniques are not yet in general clinical use. Even with the benefit of these advances, and despite some favorable (but not very realistic) publica-