THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE INVENTION OF THE MRI (Supporting Documents in the Timeline)

Raymond V. Damadian, MD, conceived the idea of using NMR (MR) to detect medical disease and proposed the MR body scanner to accomplish it. To prove its feasibility, he conducted experiments and discovered that cancer tissues produce abnormal MR signals compared to normal tissues, with relaxation times that are markedly elevated relative to normal tissues. He also discovered that the healthy tissues themselves exhibit significant differences in MR relaxation times. The relaxation differences among the normal tissues supply the contrast needed to see anatomic detail that was missing in other medical imaging technologies (x-ray and ultrasound). Recognizing that the abnormal MR signals generated by cancers could be used to detect cancers non-invasively, he went on to build the first whole body magnetic resonance scanner, which he named Indomitable, and to achieve the first MRI scan of the live human body, as well as the first scan of a patient with cancer. The tissue signals he discovered and their marked differences among the normal tissues and also between normal tissue and diseased tissue have remained the source of all MRI images today.

THE TRUTH OF HISTORY, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS – THE SAME YEAR AS THE NOBEL PRIZE

NOBEL VIOLATION OF THE TRUTH

In 2003, The Noble Prize for the MRI was awarded, not to Dr. Damadian, but to two nuclear magnetic resonance scientists. One employed a gradient, invented 50 years earlier by others, to improve the image Dr. Damadian discovered. Another was a member of a group who found a better way to use gradients to make an MRI image. Although the prize allowed for three winners, Dr. Damadian was excluded.

The award is a calculated affront to the truth of science.

It is also an affront to the will of Alfred Nobel, in which he specified that the award in medicine can only be given for “discovery,” not for technological improvements.

Thankfully, the truth of history endures.

1. THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES DISAGREES WITH THEM

He awarded the nation's highest honor in technology, the National Medal of Technology to Dr. Damadian and Dr. Lauterbur at the executive Offices of the White House in 1988 "For their independent contributions in conceiving and developing the application of magnetic resonance technology to medical uses including whole-body scanning and diagnostic imaging".

-President Reagan

2. THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL INVENTOR'S HALL OF FAME DISAGREES WITH THEM

They inducted Dr. Raymond Damadian in 1989 to join Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Samuel Morse, the Wright brothers and the other inventor legends of American history for his invention of "the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, which has revolutionized the field of diagnostic medicine".

3. THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT (William Rehnquist, Chief Justice) AFTER 1.1 MILLION PAGES OF DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE DISAGREES WITH THEM.

The First to Propose Scanning the Human Body (1969) by NMR (MRI)

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

The Signal Makes The Image:
No Signal Differences¹, No Image.

1. R. Damadian, Tumor Detection by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. Science, 19 March 1971, Vol.171, pp. 1151-1153.

Raymond V. Damadian is the medical doctor who first proposed scanning medical patients by NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance, the original name of the MRI) based on his discovery of the principle on which all modern MRI is based – the different NMR signals that tissues emit in a magnetic field. The amplitude of these signals determines the brightness of the picture elements (pixels) that the MRI image is composed of.

Figure 4. Figure 4 is an axial (cross-sectional) image of the brain showing a tumor of the cerebellum (white areas) in the midline. The bottom figure is a magnified image showing the picture elements or "pixels" (small squares) that make up the image.
Figure 5. Original 1971 data in Science showing the lengthening of the decay time (relaxation time) of the NMR signal of cancer relative to normal (e.g. liver cancer 826 milliseconds (msecs) vs 293 msecs normal liver, 736 msecs Walker Sarcoma vs. 538 msecs normal muscle). The data additionally shows the pronounced differences in the NMR signal decay rates of the normal tissues (e.g. 257 msecs intestine vs. 595 msecs for brain).	Figure 6. He discovered that the NMR signal amplitudes of cancer tissue differ markedly from the NMR signal amplitudes of the normal tissues because of the differences in their rate of decay. The above is an example of the difference in the decay rate of an NMR signal from cancer tissue relative to the decay rate of a normal tissue. The longer the signal decay the higher the signal amplitude computed from the NMR signal. The amplitude of the tissue NMR signal sets the brightness of the pixel (picture element) in the image assigned to it as exemplified in the pixels displaying the cerebellar tumor of figure 4.

“THEREFORE ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION ABOUT SCANNING THE HUMAN BODY BY NMR IS VISIONARY NONSENSE”

This was the conclusion of an NMR scientist at the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Diagnosis Conference (1976) after his successful repeat of Dr. Damadian's demonstration of the prolonged relaxations of the NMR signals of cancerous tissues and his additional observations that non-malignant diseased tissues also had prolonged NMR relaxations. He had however overlooked that both cancerous and non-cancerous diseased tissue NMR signals were markedly prolonged relative to normal making the pixels of both diseased tissue types conspicuously brighter than normal and eminently visible by MRI.

At a subsequent conference of NMR scientists where Dr. Damadian had been invited to present his NMR findings in cancer, one of the NMR scientists in the audience stood to ask

“NOW DOCTOR HOW FAST DO YOU PROPOSE TO SPIN THE PATIENT ?”*

* (Spinning the test tube sample at high rpm was a standard in NMR spectroscopy for overcoming the magnetic field inhomogeneities that the protons of the test tube sample were exposed to)

The Discovery (Figures 5 & 6) Has Made Tumors Visible (and Detectable)
By MRI

The Signal Makes The Image:
No Signal Differences¹, No Image.

He discovered that the NMR signal amplitudes of cancer tissue differ markedly from the NMR signal amplitudes of the normal tissues because of the differences in their rate of decay.

	Figure 8. Brain Tumor
Figure 9.Tumor Metastasis to Bone	Figure 10. Liver Tumor

These signal amplitude differences enabled cancer tissues (Figures 8-10) and other tissues to be visualized in MRI images because the signal differences generate the needed brightness differences (contrast) in the picture elements (pixels) needed to visualize detail in the MRI image.

The contrast in pixel brightness allows the cancer pixels in the image to be distinguished from the surrounding normal pixels. (Figs 8-10)

The Discovery (Figures 5 & 6) Has Made the Detailed Anatomy of the Human Body Visible in Medical Images For the First Time (Figures 11 & 12)

The Signal Makes The Image:
No Signal Differences¹, No Image.

He simultaneously discovered that the NMR signal amplitudes also differ markedly among the normal tissues themselves because of the differences in their rates of decay (see Figure 5).

CT Image	MRI Image
Figure 11. Note the soft tissue detail visualized in the MRI image of the brain that is not visualized by x-ray CT technology (e.g. the pronounced white matter-grey matter differentiation of the MRI, the clearly defined thalamic nuclei, and the well visualized subdural layers not visualized by CT.)
Figure 5.
Figure 12a-12d.. Further examples of the exceptional anatomic detail made visible by the discovery of Damadian of the pronounced differences in the decay rates (relaxations) of the NMR signals of the body's normal tissues (Figure 5). The discovered differences supply the pixel amplitude differences (contrast) that produce the detailed visualization of normal human anatomy MRI is noted for. Note the visualization of the vestibular and cochlear nerves within the internal auditory canel (Figure 12b) and the visualization of the hypothalamic tract (that transports hormones from the brain within the pituitary stalk. (Figure 12c)

This allows the different normal tissues to be distinguished from each other and achieve the exceptional anatomic detail MRI pictures are known for.

First Ever Patent for MR (NMR) Scanning of the Human Body

Figure 13a.
Figure 1 "Apparatus and Method For Detecting Cancer in Tissue". U.S. Patent 3,789,832. Filed March 17, 1972.

"Figure 13b.
" It is a further object of this invention to provide apparatus and method for the detection of cancer in humans which does not require tissue to be surgically removed and can be done with the probes entirely external to the body of the human who is being examined." "Apparatus and Method For Detecting Cancer in Tissue". U.S. Patent 3,789,832. Filed March 17, 1972. Column 1, lines 33-37.

Figure 13c.
Figure 2 "Apparatus and Method For Detecting Cancer in Tissue". U.S. Patent 3,789,832. Filed March 17, 1972.

Building the First MRI

Damadian went on to build the first MRI scanner by hand, assisted by his two post-doctoral students, Michael Goldsmith and Larry Minkoff at New York’s Downstate Medical Center and achieved the first MRI scan of the healthy human body in 1977 and the human body with cancer in 1978.

Figure 14. Michael Goldsmith, Raymond Damadian and Michael Stanford beginning the winding of thirty miles of Niobium Titanium wire on one of the two solenoid (circular) winding frames that would compose Indomitable's MRI magnet.

Figure 15. One of the two liquid helium dewars under construction that would house one of Indomitable's two superconducting magnet coils and maintain the necessary -269° C temperature needed to establish superconductivity in the Niobium Titanium magnet coil.

Figure 16. Raymond Damadian, Larry Minkoff and Michael Goldsmith with "Indomitable" and its iced liquid helium and liquid nitrogen ports: the world's first supercooled, superconducting MR scanner and the world's first MRI machine.

Figure 17. The unsuccessful first human MRI scan of Damadian. Goldsmith concluded that Damadian was simply "too fat" for his NMR receiver coil (the multi-conductor helix around Damadian's chest).

Figure 18. L. Minkoff in Indomitable with some "room to spare" inside the Goldsmith receiver coil.

Figure 19. The data of the first live human MRI scan of L. Minkoff's chest consisting of 106 data points acquired over four hours and forty five minutes.

Figure 20. The interpolated image of the Minkoff scan and the first ever MRI scan of a live human being (4:45 AM July 3, 1977).

Figure 21. July 3, 1977 the 4:45 AM jubilation of Team Indomitable.

VISIONARY NONSENSE HAD BECOME REALITY AT ZERO RPM !

On the Accomplishment of the World's First MRI Scan of the Live Human Body
7/3/1977

Figure 22. First-ever MRI scan of the live human body obtained 4:45 AM, July 3, 1977 on Indomitable using the focusing of the "near field" magnetic component of the transmitted rf (U.S. Patent 3,789,832) in combination with the shaping of the static magnetic field of the region of interest to generate a spatially localized NMR signal1.

Figures 23a-23c. First ever MRI images of patients with cancer (1978)
(obtained on Indomitable)

Figure 23a. FONAR scan at the level of 1-3/4 inches below the Angle of Lewis, by the method of Indomitable1, (Figs 16 and 18) in a man 46 years old with pulmonary oat cell carcinoma. Tumour indicated by light blue infiltrate in left lung field, which should be black as it is in right lung cavity. Midline structure (red) separating the two lung cavities is the cross section through the arch of the aorta. ( Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society of London B, 1980, Vol. 289, pg 498, plate 2, figure 13.)

Figure 23b. FONAR cross-sectional scan through the thorax at the level of the 3rd intercostal space, by the method of Indomitable1, (Figs 16 and 18) in a patient with an adenocarcinoma of the breast that metastasized to the right lung. The tumor is seen as a band of signal-producing tissue (light blue) bridging the right lung cavity. The tortuous structure separating the right and left lung cavities is the aortic arch. (1978) (Scanning time: 36 min.) ( Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society of London B, 1980, Vol. 289, pg 497, plate 3, figure 15. (color version))

Figure 23c. FONAR cross-sectional scan through the low chest (10th thoracic vertebra), by the method of Indomitable1, (Figs 16 and 18) in a patient with advanced alveolar cell carcinoma. The tumor is seen as intense signal-producing tissue (red, and less signal-intense light blue) invading both lung cavities and obliterating the bulk of the air space. (1978) (Scanning time: 30 min.) ( Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society of London B, 1980, Vol. 289, pg 497, plate 3, figure 14. (color version))

Figure 24. First-ever commercial MRI the FONAR QED 80. The FONAR QED 80 was equipped with a computer driven patient transport system (Vertical white bed mount pictured at the front of the QED 80 scanner) to automate the manual three-dimensional step-wise scanning procedure utilized by Indomitable1. (Indomitable transport apparatus Figs. 16 & 18)

Figure 25. "Carcinoma of the left upper lobe with peripheral consolidation". Images published by Drs. Ross, Lie, Thompson & Associates from their FONAR QED 80 MRI scanner installed in their radiology practice in Clevelend, Ohio. QED 80 images were acquired by the step-wise 3D patient translocation method of Indomitable1. (Radiology Nuclear Medicine Magazine, June 1981, cover)

Figure 26. "NMR image of the breast shows a large mass (dark area) in the central portion of the right breast. T1 data are consistent with the diagnosis of cyst. (mean: 151, width: 239)" Images published by Drs. Ross, Lie, Thompson & Associates from their FONAR QED 80 MRI scanner installed in their radiology practice in Clevelend, Ohio. QED 80 images were acquired by the step-wise 3D patient translocation method of Indomitable1. ( Radiology Vol.143, No.1, pg 202, April 1982.)

Figure 27. "NMR image shows a region of low density in the left breast with elevated T1 values. The small black area in the right breast is compatible with the diagnosis of cyst. (mean: 127, width: 128)" Images published by Drs. Ross, Lie, Thompson & Associates from their FONAR QED 80 MRI scanner installed in their radiology practice in Clevelend, Ohio. QED 80 images were acquired by the step-wise 3D patient translocation method of Indomitable1. ( Radiology Vol.143, No.1, pg 204, April 1982.)

 

THE TRUTH OF HISTORY, THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS – 2 YEARS AFTER THE NOBEL PRIZE

“By the final few decades of the twentieth century, medical practitioners were exploiting developments in nuclear physics to provide a range of new ways of peering inside the human body …. Another technique developed during the 1970s was MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). The technique was initially developed by Raymond Damadian (1936 -), working at the Downstate Medical Center in New York, making use of the fact that different atomic nuclei emit radio waves of predictable frequencies when exposed to a magnetic field. Damadian noted that tumorous cells emitted signals different from those emitted by healthy tissue and used this as the basis for a new technique for identifying cancers. Damadian and his fellow workers produced the first MRI scan of the human body in 1977.”
(Making Modern Science, A Historical Review, The University of Chicago Press, 2005).

THE TRUTH OF HISTORY, SUNY HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER (DOWNSTATE MEDICAL CENTER), BROOKLYN – 5 YEARS AFTER THE NOBEL PRIZE

(Richard Macchia, MD, and Paul Dreizen, MD, in the UUP Voice, the official publication of United University Professions (UUP), State University of New York.)

THE TRUTH OF HISTORY, THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL AND BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING – 6 YEARS AFTER THE NOBEL PRIZE

American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE)
Washington, D.C.

T1 and T2 Imaging

The great majority of MRI scans performed throughout the world today are T1 and T2 scans. They exploit the unique sensitivity of the NMR signal relaxations to tissue disease and anatomic structure discovered by Damadian2. 80 - 90% of all patient MRI scans performed today utilize either T1 (T1 weighted) or T2 (T2 weighted) imaging protocols. With approximately 15 million patient MRI scans being performed each year in the U.S. and an equal number being performed each year in the rest of the world, 30 million T1 (or T2) MRI images are being performed worldwide each year using the original T1 and T2 tissue MR (NMR) signal differences discovered by Damadian. These MR signal T1 and T2 differences of diseased tissue (EXCLUDED by the NP3) as well as the T1 and T2 differences of the MR signals of normal tissues (EXCLUDED by the NP), are THE SIGNALS THE MRI MAKES THE IMAGE WITH (the signals used by the MR scanner to construct the MRI images). Without these tissue MR signals discovered by Damadian that are used to construct the MRI image, there would be no MRI today. With each T1 or T2 scan consisting of approximately 15 image slices (15 images/scan) per patient scan, 30 image slices are being acquired from each patient for both scan types (T1 and T2) and 360,000,000 (450,000,000 x .8 - or approximately 3.6 billion in the past ten years) T1 or T2 images are therefore being acquired world-wide each year for the benefit of humanity, thanks to the T1/T2 NMR signal tissue relaxation differences discovered by Damadian. Indeed, the MR signal T1 and T2 differences of the MR signals of normal tissues discovered by Damadian (and EXCLUDED by the NP) make all the T1 (T1 weighted) and the T2 (T2 weighted) images of MRI. While the imaging techniques awarded the NP have long been replaced4, the T1 and T2 images based on Damadian's discovery (and EXCLUDED by the NP) continue to produce every MRI patient examination in the world that is acquired today. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine, for example, how the T2 MRI scan originated by the Damadian discovery (and EXCLUDED by the NP) that visualizes all diseased tissues wherever they might occur within the human body can ever be replaced. It is in fact hard to envision how it will not persist as the forever component of the patient MRI Examination while the initial techniques5 to make use of the tissue MR (NMR) signals discovered by Damadian to make the image have long been replaced6.

T2 MRI visualization of a tumor of the brain made possible by the discovery of Damadian of the abnormal T2 (and T1) MR (NMR) relaxations of cancerous tissue.

A.	B.
In addition to the direct non-invasive image visualization of prostate cancers made possible by the Damadian discovery of the NMR signal differences of cancer and normal tissue (2) (D. Beyersdorf, K. Taymoorian, T. Knosel, D. Schnorr, R. Felix, B. Hamm, H. Bruhn, AJR 2005: 185: 1214-1220, p 218 Fig. A, B), the T2 signal differences of the healthy tissues has enabled direct image visualization of the zonal anatomy of the prostate. The T2 image of the prostate (A) separates the right and left peripheral zones (PZ) of the prostate (yellow arrows) where more than 70% of prostate cancers occur from the central zone (CZ) (black arrow). In contrast, the zonal anatomy of the prostate is not visible on the T1 image of the prostate (B).

1	A 3D step-wise translocation of the patient across the magnetically focused resonance aperture. The resonance aperture was achieved by focussing the "near field" magnetic component of the transmitted rf (U.S. Patent 3,789,832) in combination with the shaping of the static magnetic field of the region of interest to generate a spatially localized NMR signal.
2	Damadian, R., Tumor Detection by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. Science, 171:1151-1153, 1971
3	Nobel Prize
4	By phase contrast frequency scanning
5	Lauterbur, P.C. (1973) Nature, 242:190-191 (NP 2003) (PhD. 1962): Garroway, A.N., Grannell, P.K., Mansfield P. (1974) (PhD. 1962) J. Phys. C: Solid State Phys., 7:L457-L462, (NP 2003)
6	Regarding Paul Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield, recipients of the NP, both had been working in the field of NMR for nine (9) years prior to Damadian's discovery5. Neither conceived of the idea of scanning the human body by NMR nor provided the means to bring it about by discovering the tissue NMR signal differences that made it happen. Neither did anything in the field of NMR scanning for nine (9) years until AFTER Damadian first conceived of the NMR body scanner (1969) and published the means (the signals) to accomplish it (1971).

 

IN SUMMATION,

ORIGINATION OF THE NMR BODY SCANNING IDEA 

Damadian both originated the idea to scan the human body by NMR (MR) and provided the means (the NMR signal differences) to achieve it. For any scientific advance to occur, someone must generate the idea to bring it about. Damadian provided the idea to give rise to the MRI.

Prior to Damadian's genesis of the NMR body scanning idea in 1969, (Figs. 1,2,3) NMR instruments for obtaining the NMR spectra of test tube samples had been in operation for 23 years. Thousands of research scientists and chemists the world over used NMR spectrometers to obtain spectra of chemical samples, but the idea to use NMR to scan the human body occurred to no one.

For example, without the idea to create an independent self-contained transportable combustion engine, there would be no automobile. Without the idea to transport vehicles by air flotation, there would be no airplanes.

Without the idea to generate light by electricity, there would be no light bulbs and without the idea to scan the human body by NMR there would be no MRI. The idea to scan the human body by NMR originated with Damadian.

Indeed, when Damadian first originated the idea it was ridiculed at a major scientific conference held at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health in 1976. A distinguished member of the NMR profession and a professor at the Johns Hopkins University at the time presented his successful repeat of Dr. Damadian's NMR measurements of malignant tissue. He went on to report that other non-malignant diseased tissues also had elevated NMR relaxations. Overlooking that both malignant tissues and non-malignant diseased tissues had marked NMR relaxations elevations when compared to normal that would generate marked differences in pixel brightness (contrast) when displayed on an MRI image he announced

"Therefore any further discussion of scanning the human body
by NMR is visionary nonsense." (Fig.7)

At another NMR conference that Dr. Damadian was asked to present at, one of the NMR scientists at the conference stood up after his presentation and asked

"Now Doctor, how fast do you propose to spin the patient ?" (Fig.7)

The focused rf of U.S. Patent 3,789,832 (Fig. 13) together with shaping of the static magnetic field provided the means for the spatial localization needed for the in vivo scanning of the 106 (Fig. 18 & Fig.19) anatomic loci (pixels – see Fig. 4) that provided the first MR image of the human body. It was demonstrated at trial that the magnetic component (the "near field" that generates the NMR signal) of the transmitted rf (radio frequency) could be shaped to any dimension desired ("focused") and moved to any location desired^†. The focusing of the transmitted rf would be used to systematically generate the NMR signals from spatially localized scanning loci within the body, in order to map the anatomy and detect diseased loci.

Except for Damadian's BOLD IDEA to take the NMR test-tube analyzer and its 2 1/4 inch sample space and totally remake the magnet and its millimeter diameter NMR rf receiver coils* that had been devoted unchanged for more than 23 years, since the inception of NMR, to the chemical analysis of test-tube samples, there would be no MRI today.

Notwithstanding grave doubts that there would be sufficient NMR signal/noise reception to detect a tiny NMR signal from a small voxel (volume element) deep within the interior of the human body, using a receiver coil 10 inches away from the signal generating volume, and still achieve an NMR signal large enough to scan the entire human body, the initiative for the NMR body scanner (MRI) proceeded under the Good Lord's protection and direction.

It took Damadian to envision the radically transforming step of taking the traditional 23 year old NMR test-tube analyzer and using it to invent a bold new revolutionary scanner for the entire human body.

*rf transmitter coils, rf receiver coils, pre-amplifiers, rf tuned resonance circuits, etc that had been devoted unchanged for more than 23 years since the inception of NMR to the NMR chemical analysis of test-tube samples.

DISCOVERY OF THE NMR SIGNAL DIFFERENCES TO MAKE THE IMAGE 

Having originated the NMR body scanner idea, Damadian also provided the means to bring it about. He isolated the T1 and T2 tissue NMR relaxation differences (See "T1 and T2 Imaging" section above. Click here) that made it possible. He demonstrated for the first time that the NMR signal from cancer tissue was markedly different from the NMR signals obtained from normal tissues. He further demonstrated in the same 1971 publication in Science (Damadian, R. Tumor Detection by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. Science, 171:1151-1153, 1971) that the NMR signals of the normal tissues also differed markedly.

 

Figure 4 is an axial (cross-sectional) image of the brain showing a tumor of the cerebellum (white areas) in the midline. The bottom figure is a magnified image showing the picture elements or "pixels" (small squares) that make up the image.

Were the amplitudes of the NMR signals** used to set the brightness of each MRI image pixel the same for all tissues (and prior to Dr. Damadian's discovery such NMR tissue signal differences were not known to exist) the brightness of each image pixel would be the same. The MR image would be a blank.

The NMR signal differences discovered by Damadian vary the brightness of the pixels that make up the image (Fig. 4). The signal differences of diseased and normal tissues generate the large differences in pixel brightness that enable all diseased tissues (cancerous as well as non-cancerous) to be exquisitely visualized (fig.4, figs.8-10) by the MRI image. Additionally the exceptional NMR signal differences among the normal tissues discovered by Damadian give rise to the extraordinary detail of normal anatomy visualized by MRI (figs. 11-12)

Except for the marked NMR signal differences between diseased tissues and normal tissues discovered by Damadian and the marked differences of the NMR signals within the normal tissues themselves discovered by Damadian there would be no MRI. It is the tissue NMR signal differences discovered by Damadian that make the MRI image.

 

 

The tissue MR (NMR) signal differences discovered by Damadian are the BUILDING BLOCKS from which the MRI IMAGE is CONSTRUCTED.

Without the BUILDING BLOCKS there is no BUILDING!

Without the tissue NMR signal differences needed to construct an image, that were discovered by Damadian (and EXCLUDED by the NP),

THERE IS NOTHING TO MAKE THE IMAGE WITH
and
THERE IS NO MRI!

 

Except for the NMR signal differences discovered by Damadian to
MAKE THE IMAGE

THERE IS NO IMAGE !

If the NMR signals used to set the brightness of the image pixels do not vary from diseased to normal tissues or within the normal tissues themselves, as discovered by Damadian*, then THERE IS NOTHING TO MAKE THE MRI IMAGE WITH! The image pixels that the MR scanner MAKES THE IMAGE WITH will all have the same brightness and THE MRI IMAGE WILL BE A BLANK !	Figure 4 is an axial (cross-sectional) image of the brain showing a tumor of the cerebellum (white areas) in the midline. The bottom figure is a magnified image showing the picture elements or "pixels" (small squares) that make up the image.

 

 

Except for the IDEA by Damadian to Scan the Human Body by NMR and Except for the Discovery by Damadian of the Tissue NMR Signals to
MAKE THE IMAGE WITH

THERE WOULD BE NO MRI TODAY !

The Signal Makes The Image:
No Signal Differences¹, No Image.

1. R. Damadian, Tumor Detection by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. Science, 19 March 1971, Vol.171, pp. 1151-1153.

* And for the 23 years since NMR was first introduced by Edward Purcell and Felix Bloch noone knew otherwise.

** as dictated by their relaxation times

^† Ultimately the apparatus was constructed from a composite of radio frequency (rf) coils that shaped the oscillating magnetic fields to cancel the magnetic fields outside the region of interest. The "reduced to practice" apparatus was needed for its courtroom demonstration (during patent litigation) of the localized transmitted rf needed for eliciting NMR signals from discrete loci within the body.