Science News Daily

Going live to the beating heart

Those long periods of lying completely still inside that intimidating MRI tube may soon be a thing of the past. Employing some tricky math and some heavy-duty computing power, researchers at the Max Planck Institute in G?ngen have developed a new MRI method that renders images in just one-fiftieth of a second, fast enough to capture organs and joints "live" for the first time. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) used to take several minutes to capture a single image, requiring patients to remain perfectly still in order to get a clear cross-sectional image of an internal organ or joint for use in diagnosis. This meant that while MRI was far preferable to X-ray -- which requires the patient to be doused with radioactive waves -- the technique was highly sensitive to any movement by the patient and could not actually capture an internal process in video-like motion. Related ArticlesBreakthrough In Magnet Technology Could Lead to Handheld MRI ScannersMRI Brain Scans Can Solve Eternal Social Problem of FreeloadingA

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