Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could be set to replace traditional bone scans and autopsies, according to an editorial in this week's BMJ.

Increasing awareness of the hazards of radiation and a worldwide fall in autopsies has prompted a search for a minimally invasive alternative, and MRI provides high quality, three-dimensional images of the inside of the body without using x-rays or other radiation.

Whole body MRI is a valuable addition to clinical examination, say authors Stephen Eustace and Erik Nelson of the National Orthopaedic Hospital in Dublin. It not only improves detection of cancers, it is effective in assessing a corpse, and is useful for body composition research.

The advent of molecular imaging is likely to herald many new scanning applications for whole body sequences, they conclude.

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