The objective of this paper is to describe clinical applications of magnetic resonance angiography. The data used were obtained from recent articles on vascular and flow magnetic resonance imaging retrieved from Index Medicus 1988-91. Other contributions were from the 19th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Neuroradiology held in Washington DC in June 1991 and the 10th Annual Conference of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine in August 1991. The data are presented in such a way as to give the reader unfamiliar with magnetic resonance a basic insight into some of the new imaging techniques. Magnetic resonance imaging is advancing at a rapid rate. Magnetic resonance angiography is already finding many areas of clinical use with concomitant reduction in conventional angiographic and duplex Doppler ultrasound procedures.