Nuclear magnetic resonance tomography of the brain

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has long promised to provide a risk-free alternative method for both structural and functional tomography of the human body, since the original small scale demonstration of its principles by Lauterbur. The considerable technical problems involved in scaling up a successful 8 cm diameter line-scan NMR imaging apparatus have been overcome, and 128 x 128 element NMR tomograms of electronically definable planes less than 1 cm thick through the living brain can be produced routinely in total time of less than 2.5 min. The method used is briefly described, and it is compared with radionuclide emission tomography, which it most resembles. The contrast mechanism in the images and the hazard are also briefly discussed.