Magnetic Resonance Imaging Magnetic resonance imaging is a clinical scanning technique that uses a strong magnet, radio waves and computer processing to build detailed cross-sectional images of soft tissue, organs and joints without the ionizing radiation an X-ray or CT scan requires, which is why it is the preferred imaging method for the brain, spinal cord, cartilage and many soft-tissue tumors. It grew directly out of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, the laboratory technique physicists and chemists had used since the 1940s to study molecular structure, once Paul Lauterbur showed in 1973 that adding a deliberately varying magnetic field gradient across a sample let the resonance signal be read out as a two-dimensional picture rather than a single spectrum. Peter Mansfield then worked out the mathematics and pulse sequences, including echo-planar imaging, that turned Lauterbur's principle into a fast, clinically usable scan, and the two shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the achievement. A scanner reads the signal given off by hydrogen nuclei, mostly in water and fat, as they realign after a radio pulse, and different tissue types return that signal at different rates, which is what lets the image distinguish grey matter from white matter or a tumor from healthy tissue around it. Physician and researcher Raymond Damadian built the first full-body scanner and obtained the first human MR image, of his assistant's chest, on 3 July 1977; his exclusion from the 2003 Nobel Prize remains a publicly disputed episode in the technology's history.
Facts
Discovery Year Discovery DateDated here to the publication of Paul Lauterbur's foundational paper, Image Formation by Induced Local Interactions, in Nature on 16 March 1973, the first published demonstration of the imaging principle behind MRI. Clinical scanners did not reach hospitals until the early 1980s, and Raymond Damadian's first full-body human scan followed on 3 July 1977. DiscovererPaul C. Lauterbur, an American chemist, published the foundational imaging principle in 1973; Sir Peter Mansfield, a British physicist, developed the pulse sequences and mathematics, including echo-planar imaging, that made fast clinical scanning practical. The two shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging. Physician Raymond Damadian built the first full-body MRI scanner, patenting the underlying concept in 1972 and obtaining the first human full-body MR image on 3 July 1977, but was not included in the 2003 Nobel Prize, a decision that remains publicly and professionally disputed. 3 Classification
Type/Classification Connections
Associated With
Cancer, Conditions MRI is a standard tool for detecting, staging and monitoring many soft-tissue tumors.
Source Raymond V. Damadian, M.D.: Magnetic Resonance Imaging and the Controversy of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Cardiac MRI images heart muscle and blood flow without the ionizing radiation of a CT angiogram, and is used to assess damage after a heart attack and to diagnose structural heart disease.
MRI transformed neurosurgical diagnosis, surgical planning and, via intraoperative MRI, resection guidance.
Source Lauterbur, Paul C. (1929-2007)
Paul Lauterbur's discoveries enabling MRI, recognized by the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, transformed radiology's modern scope.
Source Lauterbur, Paul C. (1929-2007)
Long-Form Articles
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Image Formation by Induced Local Interactions: Examples Employing Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (Lauterbur, Nature, 1973)
- Nature 242, 190-191 (1973)
entity description, Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Magnetic resonance imaging is a clinical scanning technique that uses a strong magnet, radio waves and computer processing to build detailed cross-sectional images of soft tissue, organs and joints without the ionizing radiation an X-ray or CT scan requires, which is why it is the preferred imaging method for the brain, spinal cord, cartilage and many soft-tissue tumors.
2. Wikipedia
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationMagnetic resonance imaging article, Milestones sectionQuote, Magnetic resonance imaging article, Milestones section
The study of Paul Lauterbur (The State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1973): Lauterbur proposed to use a magnetic field gradient to conduct a 2-dimensional NMR scan.
3. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2003 (NobelPrize.org)
Raymond V. Damadian, M.D.: Magnetic Resonance Imaging and the Controversy of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Associated With: Cancer
Lauterbur, Paul C. (1929-2007)
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Department of Chemistry- Associated With: Radiology
- Associated With: Neurosurgery
View the Source Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Description
Damadian and his supporters have argued for two decades that the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine wrongly excluded him from credit for magnetic resonance imaging. Damadian held the first patent on the underlying diagnostic concept, filed in 1972, built the first full-body MRI scanner, and obtained the first human full-body MR image on 3 July 1977, achievements that predate the imaging refinements Lauterbur and Mansfield were awarded for. When the Nobel committee named only Lauterbur and Mansfield, the Friends of Raymond Damadian took out full-page advertisements in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the Swedish paper Dagens Nyheter under the headline The Shameful Wrong That Must Be Righted. Proposed explanations for the omission, none officially confirmed by the Nobel committee, include that Damadian was a practicing physician rather than an academic researcher, his active lobbying for the prize, and his public support for creationism; the Nobel Foundation's own archives on the decision remain sealed until 2053.
A dissenting reading, from Raymond Damadian and the Friends of Raymond Damadian campaignRaymond V. Damadian, M.D.: Magnetic Resonance Imaging and the Controversy of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Raymond Damadian dispute the MRI Nobel Prize?
Damadian held the first MRI patent, built the first full body scanner and obtained the first human MR image in 1977, but the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went only to Lauterbur and Mansfield; his supporters have campaigned for two decades to have the omission corrected.
Damadian and his supporters have argued for two decades that the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine wrongly excluded him from credit for magnetic resonance imaging. Damadian held the first patent on the underlying diagnostic concept, filed in 1972, built the first full-body MRI scanner, and obtained the first human full-body MR image on 3 July 1977, achievements that predate the imaging refinements Lauterbur and Mansfield were awarded for. When the Nobel committee named only Lauterbur and Mansfield, the Friends of Raymond Damadian took out full-page advertisements in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the Swedish paper Dagens Nyheter under the headline The Shameful Wrong That Must Be Righted. Proposed explanations for the omission, none officially confirmed by the Nobel committee, include that Damadian was a practicing physician rather than an academic researcher, his active lobbying for the prize, and his public support for creationism; the Nobel Foundation's own archives on the decision remain sealed until 2053.
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