British Journal of Radiology (2003) 76, 849
© 2003 British Institute of Radiology
doi: 10.1259/bjr/22544945
Nobel Prize recognizes decades of sustained development in MRI
R M Harrison
and
W Vennart
The recent award of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine to Professors Paul Lauterbur and Sir Peter Mansfield is a timely acknowledgment of the impact of magnetic resonance imaging on medical practice world-wide, as well as the personal contributions of the prize winners. Indeed, there is scarcely an issue of the British Journal of Radiology that does not include a paper on some aspect of MRI.
The subject has had a long and distinguished history, beginning with the elucidation of the basic physics by Felix Bloch and Edward Purcell in 1946, for which they received the 1952 Nobel Prize for physics. More recently Richard Ernst was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize for chemistry for his contributions to the development of high resolution magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a technique whose variants are now also finding routine application in radiology. Even a superficial survey of the development of MRI and MRS reveals that multidisciplinary efforts have been, and still are, essential for the development of the subject. Moreover, we should acknowledge the perseverance and foresight of researchers in the early days of the subject. Compare, for example, Lauterbur's original water sample images [1] and Mansfield's images of a finger [2], Figure 1
, with virtually any image from a modern scanner. For a comparison with current high resolution images taken at 4.7 T, see the recent article by De Vita et al [3].
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Figure 1. Cross sectional images of a finger obtained in vivo by NMR [2]. Reproduced courtesy of the British Journal of Radiology.
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It is a particular pleasure to acknowledge the seminal contributions of Professor Sir Peter Mansfield over the whole field of magnetic resonance imaging. Several of his papers have appeared in this Journal. His early pioneering work has been built on over three decades during which time he has maintained a high level of intellectual activity bringing novel ideas to the subject. With co-workers at Nottingham, he has made both theoretical contributions (e.g. development of slice-select magnetic field gradient pulses) and developed significant hardware improvements (e.g. actively screened magnetic field gradients). From the early days, Mansfield and his team invented and then pioneered fast imaging techniques, in particular echo-planar imaging (EPI) [4]. This has led to a rapid development in snapshot imaging such that we are able to generate functional brain images (fMRI), which help to identify areas of the brain involved with cognitive activity. In addition, dynamic imaging enables tumour neovascularization to be investigated using dynamic contrast enhanced images (Figure 2) and cardiovascular function to be elucidated.
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Figure 2. Tissue vascular characterization by dynamic contrast enhanced MRI in a patient with brain glioblastoma. Courtesy of Dr Anwar Padhani, Paul Strickland Scanner Centre, Mount Vernon Hospital, London. Data processing software supplied by CRUK Magnetic Resonance Research Group, Institute of Cancer Research, London.
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The multidisciplinary team led by Mansfield has always focused on the need to develop techniques that have applications in the clinic [5] and has been fully aware of the need to do this safely [6].
This award is richly deserved and recognises the pivotal role played by Mansfield and his colleagues at Nottingham in bringing developments in the physics laboratory to the hospital environment, where their impact on patient well-being has been truly immense.
References
- Lauterbur PC. Image formation by induced local interactions. Nature 1973;242:190.[CrossRef]
- Mansfield P, Maudsley AA. Medical imaging by NMR. Br J Radiol 1977;50:188–94.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- De Vita E, Thomas DL, Roberts S, Parkes HG, Turner R, Kinchesh P, et al. High resolution MRI of the brain at 4.7 Tesla using fast spin echo imaging. Br J Radiol 2003;76:631–7.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Ordidge RJ, Mansfield P, Coupland RE. Rapid biomedical imaging by NMR. Br J Radiol 1981;54:850–5.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Stehling MK, Firth JL, Worthington BS, Guilfoyle DN, Ordidge RJ, Coxon R, et al. Observation of cerebrospinal fluid flow with echo-planar magnetic resonance imaging. Br J Radiol 1991;64:89–97.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Glover P, Hykin J, Gowland P, Wright J, Johnson I, Mansfield P. An assessment of the intrauterine sound intensity level during obstetric echo-planar magnetic-resonance imaging. Br J Radiol 1995;68:1090–4.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
