ABSTRACT
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is based on the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) phenomenon, which was first observed by Edward M. Purcell (United States) and Felix Bloch (United States) independently in 1946. They found that nuclei absorb radio waves at specified frequencies. This finding provided chemists and physicists with a way to probe molecular structures and diffusion. They received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1952 for this discovery [12, 25]. In 1972, the first magnetic resonance (MR) image (a crosssectional image of two water tubes) using the spatial information encoding principle was reported. The first MR images of the human head were published in 1978, with body scans following soon afterward. During the 1970s, most research in MRI took place in academia, primarily in the United Kingdom. In the 1980s, industry joined forces with universities, investing substantial resources to develop MRI systems. MRI scanners were first indicated for clinical use in 1983. Since then, the image quality of MRI has improved dramatically and MRI
scanners have proliferated throughout the world. With the ever-improving technology to produce images at higher resolution (micro imaging), higher speed (fast imaging), and higher information content (combined anatomical, metabolic, and functional imaging), the impact of MRI has been revolutionary not only in diagnostic radiology, but also in biology and neuroscience. Consequently, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Richard R. Ernst (Switzerland) in 1991 for Fourier transform nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and Kurt Wuthrich (Switzerland) in 2002 for the development of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution [13, 14]. The Nobel Prize in Medicine was given to Paul C. Lauterbur (United States) and Sir Peter Mansfield (United Kingdom) in 2003 for the discoveries leading to MRI [15, 16].
