Magnetic resonance imaging diagnostic applications

The helium supply seemed secure, but then scientists discovered a whole new application for the gas. Helium boils at the lowest temperature of any substance (-269°C) and it never solidifies. Liquid helium is therefore the ideal substance to cool electrical wires and reduce their resistance to the flow of the current. It has allowed us to manufacture superconducting magnets, which have diverse applications, but probably none more useful than in magnetic resonance imaging. This technology affords doctors a noninvasive look inside the human body, and it Is probably the most important medical diagnostic tool ever developed. The future of mri, however, hinges on the availability of helium. Think about that the next time you fill those birthday balloons with the gas. 

In this article, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique is described as a diagnostic tool for in-situ visualization of water content in the membrane under fuel cell operation.7-30 Demonstrative applications and measurement procedure using MRI techniques are presented with discussion on water transport involved in PEMFCs. 

Kamerlingh Onnes, at the University of Leiden, discovered superconductivity in 1911. He found that the resistance of some metallic wires became zero at very low temperature it did not just approach zero, there was no dissipation of heat. At that time his laboratory was the only one equipped for studies at the temperature of liquid He (bp 4.1 K). Theoretical explanations of the phenomenon did not appear until the work of John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and Robert Schrieffer in 1957. They received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972. The expense and difficulty of applying superconductivity to practical problems limits the applications. Nevertheless, superconductor magnets of very high field are now widely used in NMR in chemistry and the medical diagnostic applications of NMR called MRI (magnetic resonance imaging—they wanted to avoid the word "nuclear ). 

The principles that govern the NMR experiments described throughout this textbook have begun to find application in the field of medicine. A very important diagnostic tool in medicine is a technique known as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In the space of only a few years, MRI has found wide use in the diagnosis of injuries and other forms of abnormality. It is quite common for sports fans to hear of a football star who has sustained a knee injury and had it examined via an MRI scan. 

J.S. Weinstein, et al., Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles diagnostic magnetic resonance imaging and potential therapeutic applications in neurooncology and central nervous system inflammatory pathologies, a review, J. Cereb. Blood How Metab. 30 (1) (2010) 15-35. 

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