DIY的核磁共振仪——价格实惠，功能强大 | 译言网

Images From Rosen's Scanner Courtesy of Matthew Rosen at Harvard University

用Rosen的扫描仪得到的图像，装置由哈佛大学Matthew Rosen提供。

In 2002, Matthew Rosen won a NASA grant to study how gravity affects the lungs. He soon found out what lung specialists already know: An MRI scanner reveals how well a lung moves air, but it only works when the patient is lying on his back. What Rosen really wanted to see is how air moves when a person is upright, so the Harvard University physicist built a scanner that can look at the lungs no matter what position the subject is in.

2002年Matthew Rosen得到NASA授权去调查重力如何影响肺部。他很快发现意见研究肺的专家早发现的事：一个MRI（核磁共振成像）扫描仪能够反映肺部是如何呼吸空气的，但需要患者保持仰卧姿势。而Rosen想看的是一个人站着是怎么呼吸的，所以哈佛物理学家造了一个扫描仪，以便检测无论人保持什么姿势都能看到肺部情况。

Working in his lab’s basement, Rosen built his MRI from copper wire and sheets of aluminum. Very little magnetic energy is needed to rotate the helium enough to create a high-resolution image, allowing Rosen to forgo million-dollar superconducting magnets. As a result, his machine is 1/20 the cost of a typical MRI scanner. That price cut could put it in the hands of every pulmonologist, who could use it to examine asthmatics during an attack to gauge the effectiveness of medication or screen patients for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which often goes undiagnosed until its symptoms are irreversible. “It’s rare that the cheaper thing is better than the expensive thing,” Rosen says. “But we’re getting the first real pictures of lungs.”

Rosen在他的实验室地下间用铜线和铝片DIY了他自己的MRI。因为只要一点磁能就能转动氦并形成一个高清图像，所以Rosen不必花几百万美金买超导磁体，得益于此，他的机器只用了普通MRI扫描仪成本的1/20。余下的钱允许他委托任意一个胸肺科医生，用机器检查气喘患者发作时药物的效果，或者为慢性阻塞性肺病患者拍胸像，这种病很难确诊，如果症状出现就是不可逆的。“便宜的东西比贵的要好，实在太少见了，”Rosen说，“但我们已经得到了第一组真实的肺部图像。”

Several medical companies have expressed interest in the device, and Rosen thinks it could go on sale in five years. “No other system provides the details that his does,” says Bruce Rosen (no relation), the director of the lab at Massachusetts General Hospital that is testing the scanner. “Matt’s work is exactly on the money.”

有几个制药公司对此感兴趣，Rosen觉得五年内这玩意能卖不成问题。“其他系统到不了他的精度，”Bruce Rosen （两人没关系）说，他是麻省总医院实验室的主任，正在测试这台扫描仪。“Matt的工作很有价值。”

Rosen and His DIY MRI: How it works: A patient stands in the scanner, wearing a vest connected to a computer, and inhales magnetized helium. The machine’s electrified copper coils generate a weak magnetic field, causing the helium atoms to rotate. The vest detects the orientation and position of the helium atoms and sends the data to a computer, which turns it into an image of airflow through the lung.  Massachusetts General HospitalStandard MRI machines create a magnetic field that orients the hydrogen within body tissues’ water molecules in one direction. A computer detects those molecules and constructs a 3-D visualization of an organ. To show how air moves through lung tissue, doctors have patients inhale magnetized helium gas, the molecules of which align with the MRI’s magnetic field as they pass through the lungs, creating a map of the gas’s travel.

Rosen和他DIY的MRI如何工作：一个患者站在扫描仪中，穿着一件与计算机相连的背心，然后吸入被磁化的氦气。机器为铜线圈充电，形成一个弱磁场，使得氦原子旋转。背心能够探测到氦原子方向和位置，然后把数据传给计算机，再转化成一副气流流经肺部的图像。麻省总医院标准的MRI机器能纸草一个磁场，让人体细胞内所有水分子中的氢朝向一个方向。一台计算机探测到这些分子然后创建一个器官的3D模型图。为了显示空气是如何经过肺部组织，医生们让病人吸入磁化后的氦气，这样一来与氦结合的分子一起在MRI磁场的作用下一起经过肺部，从而创建一副气体流程图。

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