NMR imaging of the chest at 0.12 T: initial clinical experience with a resistive magnet.

The chests of 40 subjects were imaged with an experimental nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imager operating at a magnetic field of 0.12 T. There were six normal volunteers and 34 patients with abnormalities affecting different areas, including the chest wall, pleura, hila, mediastinum, and lung parenchyma, and including benign and malignant processes. In this initial clinical experience, NMR imaging provided useful information on the presence and extent of disease by its ability to distinguish different tissues and by the excellent demonstration of vascular structures.