Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an imaging technique used to produce high quality images of the inside of the animal body. MRI is based on the principles of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and started out as a tomographic imaging technique, that is it produced an image of the NMR signal in a thin slice through the animal body. The animal body is primarily fat and water, Fat and water have many hydrogen atoms. Hydrogen nuclei have an NMR signal. For these reasons magnetic resonance imaging primarily images the NMR signal from the hydrogen nuclei. Hydrogen protons, within the body align with the magnetic field. By applying short radio frequency (RF) pulses to a specific anatomical slice, the protons in the slice absorb energy at this resonant frequency causing them to spin perpendicular to the magnetic field. As the protons relax back into alignment with the magnetic field, a signal is received by an RF coil that acts as an antennae. This signal is processed by a computer to produce diagnostic images of the anatomical area of interest.