First MRI and ultrasound scanning

This page was last revised on 2009-05-22.

 

 

Magnetic resonance imaging

The first MRI image was published in Nature by Paul C. Lauterbur (1929-2007), in 1973.

The first MRI scan of a human body part was made by Sir Peter Mansfield (b. 1933), of the finger of his research student Dr Andrew Maudsley. The images were presented at a special meeting of the Medical Research Council in 1976. [Manfield]

The first MRI body scan performed on a human took place on 3 July 1977, undertaken by Raymond Damadian (b. 1936), Larry Minkoff, and Michael Goldsmith. [How MRI Works]

 

 

Ultrasound scanning

Howry's somagram image of an arm, 1952

Supported by Joseph H. Holmes (1902-1982), Douglass Howry (b. 1920) produced in 1951, with William Roderic Bliss and Gerald J. Posakony, both engineers, the 'Immersion tank ultrasound system', the first 2-dimensional B-mode (or PPI, plan position indication mode) linear compound scanner. Two dimensional cross-sectional images were published in 1952 and 1953, which convincingly demonstrated that interpretable 2-D images of internal organ structures and pathologies could be obtained with ultrasound. [History of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology]

3D ultrasound was first developed by Olaf von Ramm and Stephen Smith at Duke University in 1987. [Patent]

Often these images are captured rapidly and animated to produce a "4D ultrasound".

 

© 2009 Benjamin S. Beck

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