FONAR To Ring The Nasdaq Stock Market Closing Bell, As It Celebrates 50th Birthday of MRI

MELVILLE, N.Y., March 09, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FONAR Corporation (NASDAQ-FONR), The Inventor of MR Scanning, will ring the Nasdaq Stock Market Closing Bell on March 9, 2021. Nasdaq and FONAR selected this day as it is 50 years since the discovery of MRI by Raymond V. Damadian, M.D., FONAR’s founder and chairman, was published in the widely-read, peer-reviewed scientific journal Science on March 19, 1971.*

To access the live stream link for the FONAR Closing Bell Ceremony from Nasdaq visit: https://livestream.com/accounts/27896496/events/9548785.

Dr. Damadian said, “I got my first idea for MRI in 1969, and in 1970 made the discovery that is the basis for the making of every MRI image ever produced and the foundation of the MRI industry. This discovery is that there is a marked difference in the relaxation time of the NMR (MRI) signals between normal and cancerous tissues of the same type, as well as between different types of normal tissues. This discovery, published in the peer-reviewed journal ‘Science,’ marked the beginning of the MRI industry.”

The discovery resulted in the generation of the pronounced pixel contrast that was deficient in traditional medical imaging technology (x-ray, CT, 4%) and was needed for adequate visualization of the body's vital organs and assessment of their well-being. The pixel contrast provided by MRI imaging was raised to 131%. As reported in edubilla.com: “But without this discovery of the profound sensitivity of the relaxation time to different tissue types and malignant tissue THERE WOULD BE NO PICTURE AT ALL.”

Prior to this 1971 article in the journal Science, there was no realization that existing NMR test tube technology could be transformed into a scanner of the live human body. Soon scientists around the world began researching the discovery.

Dr. Damadian’s discovery, as reported in Science 1971, soon led to the first patent in MRI.** In 1977, with his two post doctorate students, Lawrence Minkoff, Ph.D., and Michael Goldsmith. Ph.D., he went on to make the world’s first MRI scanner.

Dr. Minkoff recalled the preparations for the world’s first MRI scan. He said: “Dr. Damadian agreed to be the first to go into a huge magnetic field and have resonating radio frequencies directed at his body and specifically the area around his heart. This was a risk as no one in the world to our knowledge had done this before. So the first time, a cardiologist was on hand to help if there was a problem. Unfortunately, the scan did not work. It was later determined that the coil needed further development. So, finally on the evening of July 2, we were able to get an NMR (MRI) signal from my chest. With this successful achievement we were then able to proceed and make the world’s first MRI image of a live human being.”