Evolution of diagnostic neuroradiology from 1904 to 1999

Neuroradiology began in the early 1900s soon after Roentgen discovered x ra ys, with the use of skull radiographs to evaluate brain tumors. This was fo llowed by the development of ventriculography in 1918, pneumoencephalograph y in 1919, and arteriography in 1927. In the beginning, air studies were th e primary modality, but this technique was supplanted by angiography in the 1950s and 1960s. The first full-time neuroradiologist in the United States was Cornelius G. Dyke at the New York Neurological Institute in 1930. Neur oradiology took a firm hold as a specialty in the early 1960s when Dr Juan M. Taveras brought together:fourteen neuroradiologists from the United Stat es and Canada to establish the nucleus of what was to become the American S ociety of Neuroradiology, or ASNR. This society's initial goals were to per form research and to advance knowledge within the specialty. Neuroradiologi sts initially were able to diagnose vascular disease, infections, tumors, t rauma, and alterations in cerebrospinal fluid flow, because the brain struc ture was invisible. Neuroradiology was forever changed with computed tomogr aphy (CT) because the brain structure became visible. Soon thereafter, magn etic resonance (MR) imaging was developed, and it not only provided anatomi c but also made possible vascular and physiologic functional imaging.