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BOOK REVIEW :
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL.94,NO.2, : 25 JANUARY 2008 272
Magnetic Resonance Imaging or MRI is a technique well-known,
beyond the scientific community, even to the common man because
of its widespread use in hospitals. It is therefore invariably
associated with imaging human anatomy and with disease detection.
That the technique is extensively used in a number of other
areas such as plant science, food technology and material
science is not that well-known. This book serves the purpose
of bridging the gap in knowledge in this regard. It is a compilation
of 19 articles on the application of MRI to a variety of systems
mainly related to plants and food. There are also a few articles
pertaining to human imaging and some on methodology which
have been contributed by several authors from laboratories
across the globe. The book also carries a foreword by the
Nobel Laureate Dr Paul C. Lauterbur, inventor of MRI, who
passed away recently. The articles provide interesting reading
and cover topics such as study of fruits, wine grapes and
wood, and measurement of quality of food items like bread,
meat, ham, seafood and so on
Clinical applications include topics such as the study of
pancreas, application to cancer detection and MRI of lung.
There is also an interesting work reported on functional MRI
of plants, which studies how water flow in the stem of the
plants is affected by an external stimulus namely switching
on and switching off of light near the plant.
MRI as a technique has undergone rapid development and is
now able to provide detailed images with a resolution of the
order of a millimetre in the case of whole-body imaging used
in hospitals to a few microns in the case of laboratory mini-
and micro-imaging machines. As a result, minute changes occurring
deep inside the system under investigation can be easily identified.
This is the basis of disease detection in human beings and
quality measurements in food items. The images provide detailed
information on the structure of the object under study. It
is also possible to make flow measurements using MRI. Thus,
the ascent of water from the roots of plants upwards through
the xylem as well as the downward flow of assimilates produced
by photosynthesis in the leaves through the phloem can be
imaged simultaneously and studied. Another major advantage
of MRI is that it is non-invasive and nondestructive. Therefore
it allows viewing cross-sections of the specimen from different
directions which is not possible in the case of invasive techniques.
Also, repeated examination of the specimen over a period of
time is possible. Thus temporal changes such as the spread
of infection in fruits, fermentation of bread dough, drying
processes in wood, ripening process of ham, etc. can be monitored
in fine detail.
Two factors which are unfavourable for MRI for use in an
assembly line are the relatively slow speed of imaging an
entire object and the bulkiness of the apparatus. Applications
reported in this book indicate developments that will propel
the technique eventually towards such use.
In addition to imaging, localized spectroscopy called Magnetic
Resonance Spectroscopy or MRS is also a very useful technique
for disease detection and its application for detection of
cancer has been illustrated. Generally proton is the choice
of nucleus for MRI investigations. However imaging and spectroscopic
studies using other nuclei are not rare. This is illustrated
in the article on the use of lithium for the study of mammalian
systems. The articles also contain application of MRI to such
interesting areas as developmental biology, anatomical changes
during embryonic development, cell tracking, etc. The book
under review clearly shows that MRI has developed into a truly
multi-disciplinary science with physicists, chemists, material
scientists, clinicians, biologists, botanists, bioengineers
and other scientists coming together and inventing new areas
of applications of MRI.
Overall, the book makes interesting reading and will be highly
useful for scientists to learn the different directions in
which MRI can be applied. While there is a surfeit of books
on clinical applications of MRI, there is hardly any book
that covers other applications. Thus, this book is both timely
and appropriate.
A few words about the format and production of the book need
to be mentioned. It would have been better had more attention
been given to the arrangement of articles. Thus, it would
help an uninitiated reader to start with an introduction to
MRI. Article 12 in the book attempts to do so, but it is in
the wrong place, and could have been better presented in terms
of content and accuracy. Several articles seem to have been
published just as submitted by the authors without bringing
them to the book format. Thus, in several cases the figures
and tables are at the end of the article and not at appropriate
places in the text. Also, not enough care has been taken to
obtain good figures with clearly legible legends. As a result,
the description of the figure is left to be guessed by the
reader. There are also many glaring typos which make the reading
difficult. However, if one overlooks these minor difficulties,
the book is a welcome addition to the useful area of application
of MRI.
K. V. RAMANATHAN
NMR Research Centre (SIF),
Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore 560 012, India
e-mail: kvr@nrc.iisc.ernet.in
Book Review by Dr. Raghunath A. Mashelkar, FRS,
CSIR Bhatnagar Fellow.
Name : "Looking into Living things through MRI"
ISBN # :ISBN 81-85405-03-4
" The book 'Looking into living things .... through MRI'
is indeed very timely in view of the fact that the overarching
power of MRI has been captured in a diverse range of
fields so admirably in a single volume.
The use of MRI is studying as a diverse fields as Food to
Wood and Flaura to Fona has been captured very elegantly.
Each chapter has been written by an eminent expert in
the field. The emphasis has not been on fundamentals
of MRI but more on its intelligent application as a powerful
tool. The microstructural details can be sstudied to improve the
properties and performance of diversity of systems. Therefore
the overall contribution of this book is most notable.
Please accept my hearty congratulations. I do hope the book
is read and used widely across the world. "
"Looking into Living Things Through MRI"
- A Book launched on 29th December, 2006
In India Magnetic Resonance Imaging has become a very popular
diagnostic system in the recent past though it was introduced
in early eighties. It all started with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
about four decades back. Since then, applications of NMR,
MRI, Spectroscopy, Microscopy have been in the field of both
clinical and non-clinical for quite some time.
Now The First book on varied applications of MRI Title of
the book combining the latest research and findings is published
giving some of the practical uses of this Technology in Fruit,
Plant, Food, Sea-food etc. 37 authors who contributed from
various countries such as USA, UK, France, Australia, Japan
Spain, Singapore, The Netherlands etc. Including India.
The idea of this book was mooted after the Nobel Prize was
awarded to Dr. Paul C. Lauterbur and Dr. Peter Mansfield for
discovery of MRI in 2003. The book has been conceptualized
by Dr. S.S.Ranade and Dr. R.S. Chaughule who have to their
credit numerous researches in MRI applications both in clinical
and non-clinical fields. The composition of the book provides
wider canvas on different uses and approaches for real research
in this subject. The book has been forewarded by Prof. Paul
C. Lauterbur, A NOBEL LAURATE, U.S.A.
The book will be useful in almost all MRI installations,
Research Institutes of different Medical and Health disciplines,
in addition to laboratories for testing of quality, also of
plants, wood, fruits (exports), and so on.
The book is published by Ajit Nagpurkar of Prism Publications,
15/4, Shivpuri, Near Chembur Naka, S.T.Road, Chembur, Mumbai
400 071. India. Ph # 91- 22- 25295725/ 25227616 Fax # 91-22-25242484
email: ajitn@vsnl.com
ISBN # 81-85405-03-4
No. Of Pages - 341
Cover - Hardbound
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