Objective To study the lesion characteristics in magnetic resonance angiography imaging in transient ischemic attacks. Methods Sixty patients with transient ischemic attacks in this hospital were recruited to examine intracranial artery and carotid artery by magnetic resonance angiography. We analyzed the lesion characteristics of cranium-neck blood-supplying arteries, such as narrowing, and angiosclerosis. Results 53(88.33%) patients had cerebral artery stenosis and 7（11.67%）patients had nothing abnormal detected by magnetic resonance imaging. Forty patients had lesions in internal carotid artery system and 13 patients in vertebral basilar artery system. There was no significant difference in distribution of intracranial and extracranial lesions between different arterial systems, χ²=4.94，P=0.08470. There were 92 arteries with lesions in 53 patients with cerebral artery stenosis: mild stenosis in 20 branches, moderate stenosis in 32 branches, severe stenosis 38 branch, occlusion 2 branch. The number of affected branches increased in the order: internal carotid artery＜middle cerebral artery＜vertebral artery＜common carotid artery＜basilar artery＜anterior cerebral artery initial segment＜posterior cerebral artery. Conclusions Magnetic resonance angiography is useful in the evaluation of etiological factors and must be performed to guide the treatment of patients with transient ischemic attacks.