Preliminary experimental results in humans and animals with a superconducting, whole-body, nuclear magnetic resonance scanner.

In order to determine the clinical usefulness of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging, the investigators examined a variety of normal volunteers, patients with neoplastic lesions, and experimental animals. Preliminary results were obtained with the use of potential contrast agents. It was found that imaging applications of NMR in the vascular system, spine, brain, lung, and mediastinum offer certain advantages over other modalities. The absence of biological hazard as well as the ability to obtain unenhanced, noninvasive, gated images of the vascular system, as demonstrated in this study, make NMR particularly attractive. In addition to single-section capability, NMR makes it possible to obtain volume images of the spine and other organs which can be displayed in any desired plane or section thickness.