Medical devices incorporate therein imaging materials having selected MRI detectable nuclei to provide useful magnetic resonance images of the medical devices and proximate body tissue. Also, a method generates MRI images of such a medical device, and involves performing first and second MRI processes on a body portion including at least a portion of the medical device to obtain, respectively, first and second image data. The first MRI process is adapted to detect MRI detectable nuclei present in the proximate body tissue, and the second MRI process is adapted to detect the selected MRI detectable nuclei contained in the device's imaging material. The selected MRI detectable nuclei incorporated in the imaging material is not the same nuclei that the first MRI process is adapted to detect. The second image data are combined with the first image data to produce image data for the medical device and the proximate body tissue.