Magnetic Resonance Imaging: The Nuclear Option

Excerpt

In this ninth installment of the series Paradigm Shifts in Perspective, Drs. Roth, Halegoua-De Marzio, and Guglielmo describe the application of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to the diagnosis of gastrointestinal and liver diseases in an enlightening, comprehensive, and detailed review. MRI represents the culmination of over a century of scientific investigation, the bulk of which was in particle physics, with scarce recognition of its clinical applicability until the late 1970s. MRI is perhaps one of the greatest triumphs of translational medicine: the transformation of important discoveries made in the most fundamental of scientific disciplines, particle physics, into a powerful and essentially safe diagnostic medical technique. …