The history of magnetic resonance imaging and its reflections in Acta Radiologica

Abstract

The first reports in Acta Radiologica on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were published in 1984, four years after the first commercial MR scanners became available. For the first two years, all MR papers originated from the USA. Nordic contributions started in 1986, and until 2020, authors from 44 different countries have published MR papers in Acta Radiologica. Papers on MRI have constituted, on average, 30%–40% of all published original articles in Acta Radiologica, with a high of 49% in 2019. The MR papers published since 1984 document tremendous progress in several areas such as magnet and coil design, motion compensation techniques, faster image acquisitions, new image contrast, contrast-enhanced MRI, functional MRI, and image analysis. In this historical review, all of these aspects of MRI are discussed and related to Acta Radiologica papers.

The development of musculoskeletal radiology for 100 years as presented in the pages of Acta Radiologica

“…Musculoskeletal MRI was first reported by Pettersson et al (124) in 1985, on MRI of sacrococcygeal tumors, also summarizing musculoskeletal MRI of the day in the following issue of Acta Radiologica (125). MRI was quickly adopted as an important imaging modality for musculoskeletal use, and as the image quality improved and imaging time decreased, the number of articles in Acta Radiologica rapidly increased (126). For example, spinal imaging was first reported in 1987 (127), hemophilic arthropathy in 1987 (128), a comparison of low-field MRI with scintimetry for evaluation of posttraumatic femoral head avascular necrosis (129), and an evaluation of soft-tissue infection by ultra-low-field MRI in 1989 (130), and the use of gadolinium contrast for investigation of soft-tissue tumors in 1990 (131).…”

Change and consistency in Acta Radiologica over 100 years

“…The rapid development of CT is shown in the exploration of its usefulness in all organ systems, such as early examples of investigation of pulmonary embolism ( 39 ), high resolution CT of cystic fibrosis ( 40 ), hepatic tumor imaging ( 41 ), the use of CT for biopsy guidance ( 42 ), and many more. Anders Hemmingsson was intimately associated with MR research in Uppsala in Sweden, and the emergence of MR imaging (MRI) techniques to become a dominant force among the imaging modalities is evident from the increasing number of MR publications in Acta Radiologica during his editorship ( 5 ). Examples from his period as editor include the advantages of lumbar spine imaging with MRI ( 43 ), and the usefulness of MRI for tumor evaluation ( 44 ), occult trauma evaluation ( 45 ), ligament and tendon evaluation ( 46 , 47 ) and the reporting of new techniques such as MR angiography ( 48 ) and diffusion-weighted imaging ( 49 ), among others.…”

“…The development of imaging modalities is exemplified by the introduction and evolution of magnetic resonance (MR) techniques and ultrasonography. While Odeblad and Lindström had already reported on MR spectroscopy in 1955 ( 4 ), the first commercially available system for imaging of the human body was introduced in 1980, described by Smith in the current issue of Acta Radiologica ( 5 ). Ultrasonography, with imaging of the human body beginning in the 1950s, is described by Nielsen et al ( 6 ).…”