Edge detection is an absolutely necessary step in medical image processing, and the use of differential operators to detect edge is one of the most common and effective methods. In this paper are analyzed the frequency features of the Roberts operator, Prewitt operator, Sobel operator and Laplacian operator from the viewpoint of frequency domain, and it is proposed that the frequency features of the differential operators should be considered when differential operator is being used and/or constructed. Because edge detection operator is sensitive to the edge type, the appropriate operator should be adopted in different edge type detection. Finally, the importance and necessity of selecting edge detection operator are validated in the MRI image edge processing.