ZURICH, Switzerland, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- A Swiss doctoral student has made a discovery that medical scientists say could revolutionize magnetic resonance imaging technology.
David Brunner of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the University of Zurich said he has succeeded in exciting nuclear magnetic resonance imaging in the human body by propagating electromagnetic waves.
Brunner said he developed his theory of using propagating waves for MRI after a colleague took images of a hand and captured so-called fold-over artifacts that seemed to originate from outside the detector's field. Brunner said that meant signals were recorded not only from the target region but also from a considerable distance -- although the detector was supposed to be sensitive only to its immediate surroundings. That, he said, is only possible if the signals travel, that is, if they propagate as waves.
"The fact that MRI signals can be received with an antenna and across such large distances is remarkable; it's a paradigm shift," said Professor Klaas Prussmann, who led the project.
"Unfortunately, the cost of the strong magnets is still substantial and the clinical benefits of very high fields first need to be proven in extensive studies," he said. But he said the technology holds promise not only for medical imaging but also other applications. For instance, he said it might be used to examine large numbers of material samples or small animals in parallel for high-throughput screening.
The research appears in the journal Nature.
