Attached files
exhibit 99.1
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FONAR CORPORATION
For Immediate Release FONAR Corporation NASDAQ-FONR
Contact: Daniel Culver 110 Marcus Drive
Director of Communications Melville, New York 11747
Web site: www.fonar.com Telephone: (631) 694-2929
Email: investor@fonar.com Fax Number: (631) 390-1709
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Major Diagnostic Breakthrough in Multiple Sclerosis
Achieved With Advanced FONAR UPRIGHT(R) MRI
MELVILLE, NEW YORK, October 5, 2011 - In a newly published paper, medical
researchers at FONAR Corporation (NASDAQ-FONR) report a diagnostic breakthrough
in multiple sclerosis (MS), based on observations made possible by the
company's unique FONAR UPRIGHT(R) Multi-Position(TM) MRI. The findings reveal
that the cause of multiple sclerosis may be biomechanical and related to
earlier trauma to the neck, which can result in obstruction of the flow of
cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which is produced and stored in the central
anatomic structures of the brain known as the ventricles. Since the ventricles
produce a large volume of CSF each day (500 cc), the obstruction can result in
a build up of pressure within the ventricles, resulting in leakage of the CSF
into the surrounding brain tissue. This leakage could be responsible for
generating the brain lesions of multiple sclerosis.
The paper, titled "The Possible Role of Cranio-Cervical Trauma and Abnormal CSF
Hydrodynamics in the Genesis of Multiple Sclerosis," has just been published
and appears in the latest issue of the journal Physiological Chemistry and
Physics and Medical NMR (Sept. 20, 2011, 41: 1-17). It is co-authored by MRI
researchers Raymond V. Damadian and David Chu.
Commenting on the study, the lead researcher and president of FONAR, Raymond V.
Damadian stated, "These new observations have uncovered biomechanical barriers
that appear to give rise to multiple sclerosis, and, even more excitingly,
these barriers may be therapeutically addressable." Damadian is the medical
doctor who discovered the abnormal signals from tissue that are the basis of
every MRI image made today and who went on to invent the MRI and build the
world's first MRI by hand at New York's Downstate Medical Center.
The findings are based on viewing the real-time flow of cerebrospinal fluid in
a series of eight randomly chosen patients with multiple sclerosis.
The cerebrospinal fluid, known as CSF, lubricates the brain and spinal cord.
Utilizing FONAR's patented Advanced UPRIGHT(R) Multi-Position(R) MRI
technology, the team was able to view the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in and
out of the brain with the patients lying down and upright. These invaluable
dual observations have only been possible since the invention of an MRI capable
of imaging the patient upright.
Damadian and co-researcher, Chu, discovered obstructions of the CSF flow in all
eight patients in the study and, in seven out of eight patients, the
obstruction was more pronounced when the patient was in the upright position.
The UPRIGHT(R) MRI also revealed that these obstructions were the result of
structural deformities of the cervical spine, induced by trauma earlier in
life.
The research was initiated when Damadian and Chu scanned a patient with
multiple sclerosis. In reviewing the MRI scans, Damadian noted that one of the
MS lesions in the patient's brain was directly connected with the CSF within
the ventricles of the brain, which are the structures in which the body
continuously produces CSF fluid. It does so through a network of blood vessels
within the ventricles known as the choroid plexus. This network generates a
large volume of CSF daily, approximately 500 cc.
Damadian knew that in multiple sclerosis the lesions are typically concentrated
adjacent to the ventricles and are peri-ventricular in distribution (i.e.
surrounding the ventricle). He had also determined that the patient had a
history of severe trauma to the cervical spine. When a careful history of
subsequent patients in the study was taken, it revealed that all but one had
also experienced some form of serious traumatic injury to the cervical spine.
When viewing MRI scans of the first patient, Damadian hypothesized that any
obstructions of the continuous circulation of the daily volume of CSF out of
the brain to the spinal cord and back could cause increased pressure within the
ventricles, which could result in leakage of the fluid into the brain tissue
surrounding the ventricles.
Damadian knew that CSF fluid contains proteins, which are made up of
polypeptides, in fact, that the fluid contains more than 300 polypeptides. Nine
of the proteins they form are known to be antigens that stimulate the
production of antibodies. He wondered if these proteins, leaking into the brain
tissue, could be initiating the antigen-antibody complexes in the brain that
cause the pathology and symptoms of multiple sclerosis.
The disease results in the destruction of the coverings, or myelin sheaths,
that insulate the nerve fibers of the brain. The destruction prevents the
nerves from functioning normally and produces the symptoms of multiple
sclerosis. The destruction is the origin of the multiple sclerosis lesions seen
on the MRI images.
But, unlike nerve tissue, the myelin sheaths can regenerate - once the cause of
their destruction is eliminated. The paper suggests that surgical or
biomechanical remediation of the obstruction of the flow of CSF in the cervical
spine could relieve the increased CSF pressure within the ventricles and
eliminate the resultant leakage of fluid into the surrounding brain tissue and
the inflammation of the myelin sheaths that it generates. Once the leakage has
been stopped, the myelin sheaths could be repaired by the body's myelogenesis
process with the prospect of a return to normal nerve function for these
nerves.
Images in the recumbent and upright positions of one of the MS patients from
the study follow. Note the presence of ventral CSF flow when the patient (MS
patient #6) is recumbent (Figure 6c) but the loss of ventral CSF flow when the
patient is upright (Figures 6b).
To see more images visit www.fonar.com/news/100511.htm.
See photo of a patient in the FONAR UPRIGHT(R) Multi-Position(TM) MRI. Unlike
traditional lie-down MRIs, patients walk into the UPRIGHT(R) MRI and sit in the
scanner. In the diagnosis of usual spine problems such as back pain, the
patients are asked to place themselves in the position that causes their back
symptoms. Then an upright MRI image is generated. As a result, the spinal
pathology that is causing the patient's back pain can be more accurately and
more completely identified and defined. Since the seat in the MRI can be tilted
to any position and also flattened into a bed in the horizontal position, the
researchers were able to view the patients in the MS study in both the
recumbent and upright positions.
The study was part of ongoing research at the UPRIGHT(R) MRI CENTER at FONAR
Corporation, which invented the UPRIGHT(R) MRI scanner. Research at the center,
which is located in Melville, New York, has already provided unique diagnostic
views of the upright spine with the weight of the body on it, including the
spine with the patient bending forward and backward, radiation-free monitoring
of scoliosis, upright imaging of pelvic floor problems in women, such as
a prolapsed bladder or uterus, sit-down imaging of the prostate without the
usual endorectal coil, and a walk-in, sit-down 10-minute scan that allows for
cost-effective MRI scanning of patients undergoing chemotherapy to monitor
tumor responses biweekly.
The complete study that led to the diagnostic breakthrough in
multiple sclerosis can be accessed at the company website at:
www.fonar.com/pdf/PCP41_damadian.pdf
To see the full release and additional images visit:
www.fonar.com/news/100511.htm
About the Researchers
Raymond V. Damadian is the medical doctor who first proposed scanning medical
patients by NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance, the original name of the MRI)
based on his discovery of the principle on which all modern MRI is based - the
different NMR signals that tissues emit in a magnetic field. The amplitude of
these signals accounts for the pixel brightness in every MRI image. He
discovered that the NMR signal amplitudes of cancer tissue differ markedly from
the NMR signal amplitudes of the normal tissues because of the differences in
their rate of decay. He simultaneously discovered that the NMR signal
amplitudes also differ markedly among the normal tissues themselves because of
the differences in their rates of decay. These signal amplitude differences
enabled cancer tissues and other tissues to be visualized in MRI images because
the signal differences generate the needed brightness differences (contrast)
in the picture elements (pixels) needed to visualize detail in the MRI image.
The contrast in pixel brightness allows the cancer pixels in the image to be
distinguished from the surrounding normal pixels. It also allows the different
normal tissues to be distinguished from each other and achieve the exceptional
anatomic detail MRI pictures are known for. Damadian went on to build the first
MRI scanner by hand, assisted by two post-doctoral students, at New York's
Downstate Medical Center and achieved the first MRI scan of a healthy human
body in 1977 and a human body with cancer in 1978. For these discoveries he
received the National Medal of Technology from President Reagan in 1988, was
inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1989 as the inventor of
the MRI and was named Inventor of the Year in 2007 for his invention of the
FONAR UPRIGHT(R) Multi-Position(TM) MRI. He founded FONAR to bring MRI
diagnosis to patients. The company manufactured and installed the world's
first commercial MRI in 1980. Damadian is currently FONAR's president and chief
research officer.
David Chu is the head MRI scientist at FONAR who specializes in the imaging of
the cerebrospinal fluid with advanced cines, or movies, which allow for
observation of CSF flow in real time. The technology, which the company calls
TrueFlow(TM) Imaging, made the diagnostic breakthrough in multiple sclerosis
possible.
