Permanent Magnet Structure for a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imager for Medical Diagnostics

The present invention relates to the utilization of magnetic fields established by means of permanent magnets for use in medical diagnosis, particularly of the human body or torsi. Whole-body nuclear magnetic resonance diagnostics has been available in the medical arts for some time. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has become an increasingly powerful and convenient tool for both medical diagnostics and for medical research. Ferrite permanent magnet type NMR diagnostic devices have been constructed and, while found to be suitable for the intended use within a reasonable degree, have been disadvantaged by the abnormally heavy weights of the large magnets required to generate the requisite fields over working volumes approximating the size of the human body. It is, therefore, a primary object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and a method for NMR diagnosis of the human body in a particularly constructed so as to align the field flux adn effect the passage of same through the target body in a preselected desired manner.