The work of Dr. Brian Rutt is focused on quantitative measurement of anatomical and functional characteristics of the vasculature using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). He leads an ongoing project involving the development of improved methods for acquiring and displaying MR angiograms i.e. images of blood vessels. In conjunction with clinician collaborators, he is evaluating the usefulness and diagnostic accuracy of several different types of MRI for diagnosing and characterizing vascular disease in vivo. He has also been working on the development of high-speed MRI techniques which will allow the acquisition of complete image sets in seconds rather than minutes. This research is aimed at solving the very real problem of low patient throughput in clinical MRI departments, and in addition is aimed at the development of dynamic scanning methods. In addition, he has been working in the area of MRI hardware development and specifically the development of advanced "receiver coils", which receive the very weak magnetic signals that emanate from the patient's body, and advanced "gradient coils" which produce the spatial resolution in MR images. These coil developments are aimed at improving image quality by improved design of coils and by custom fitting of coils to patient anatomy.