Going live to the beating heart
'Please hold absolutely still': This instruction is crucial for patients being examined by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It is the only way to obtain clear images for diagnosis. Up to now, it was therefore almost impossible to image moving organs using MRI. Max Planck researchers from Goettingen have now succeeded in significantly reducing the time required for recording images - to just one fiftieth of a second. With this breakthrough, the dynamics of organs and joints can be filmed 'live' for the first time: movements of the eye and jaw as well as the bending knee and the beating heart. The new MRI method promises to add important information about diseases of the joints and the heart. In many cases MRI examinations may become easier and more comfortable for patients...