Unsolved problems in medical imaging

Medical imaging is a discipline which enables medical doctors and surgeons to do their job better by providing images of the human body's internals, either for diagnostic purposes or for guidance during therapy (eg surgery).

There are various open problems in medical imaging as of 2007.

MRI acoustic noise

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) creates high-resolution images of the body's internals by using a very strong magnetic field (which can be 20 000 times the Earth's magnetic field) generated by constant fast movement of coils inside the MRI scanner. This fast movement also generates a loud noise. Considerable research effort is done attempting to think of an innovative way to solve this problem and thus enable the creation of low-noise MRI scanners, but no study has so far proved fruitful. Therefore, as of 2007, the only way to protect the patients entering an MRI scanner is to supply them with ear defenders.

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