Who Invented the MRI?

One of the most recent inventions to have changed the way medical diagnostics is the Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine, commonly known as the MRI, Its inventor, Dr. Raymond V. Damadian received the 2007 National Inventor of the Year Top Inventor Award for the MRI, even though the Nobel Prize for discoveries that depended on the MRI went to Paul Lauterbur and Sir Peter Mansfield in 2003.

Identification

Dr. Raymond V. Damadian was born on March 16, 1936 in Melville, New York. He trained as a medical doctor, even though his musical talent allowed him to study violin at Juilliard. After he invented the MRI, he started the FONAR Corporation, also in Melville, New York, to produce MRIs for commercial use in medicine.

History

Damadian's invention came from his observations that the tissue in a cancerous tumor looked differently than healthy tissue, after both tissue samples had been exposed to nuclear magnetic resonance. He published these findings in 1971. Then, he collaborated with two other doctors, Dr. Larry Minkoff and Dr. Michael Goldsmith, to investigate the potential for the MRI technology to give doctors the ability to observe soft tissue without having to do exploratory surgery.

Time Frame

The first MRI device for a full body scan was built by 1977. Dr. Damadian named it the "Indomitable." You can see it when you visit the Smithsonian Institute. The first MRI examination was performed on July 3, 1977. The next year was when Dr. Damadian started the FONAR Corporation. The first commercially available MRI machines were for sale by 1980.

Features

The earliest MRI devices look like a long horizontal tube in which a person lies down. The tube is positioned inside a large magnet. The tube can be moved back and forth, so that the part of the patient's body which needs to be scanned is in the exact center of the MRI's magnetic field. A magnetic force of up to 1 tesla or 10,000 gauss is safe for medical use. To put this in perspective, a regular horse-shoe magnet exerts a magnetic force of several hundred gauss. The information gained by passing the magnetic force through the patient's body is displayed on a map which can be viewed either in two or three dimensions. Doctors use the map to diagnose conditions that affect the soft tissue areas of the body which do not show up on X-rays.

Warning

Patients who have metal implants in their body must disclose this information to the MRI technicians and to their doctor before submitting to an MRI scan, because the implants may be moved, damaged or cause harm to the patient. The doctors must evaluate the type, position and stability of any metal that has previously been placed inside a patient's body, including dental work, before prescribing a scan.