In another medical advancement, Ohio State University’s colleges of medicine and engineering have chosen to partner with “World Changing Company of the Year” Siemens to create a new MRI machine that actually overcomes the old model’s former limitations.
With their new design, the MRI machine can now open up its medical use to people with implants, obesity, and other particularities that once prohibited them from using the machine.
Magnetic Resonance Imager (MRI) are machines that are vital to getting the most accurate diagnosis for patients, but sadly the old design had quite a number of key limitations. For one, people that had implants like pacemakers couldn’t use the machine. Moreover, the existing MRI machines also cannot see inside the lungs of humans, which means that as a result, patients are exposed to very high amounts of radiation, especially for those individuals with chronic conditions. They are also quite expensive to install ad run, while those individuals considered to be of the highest forms of body-mass index, they can’t actually fit inside the opening of the machine.
The new MRI, the 0.55T MAGENTOM Free.Max actually fixes these five essential issues. This is all due to the amazing dedication of research director of cardiovascular magnetic resonance at OSU, Orlando Simonetti, and assistant professor of biomedical engineering, Rizwan Ahmad.
According to its designers, the main secret behind their powerful new creation is a lower resonance level. Since MRIs normally use magnetic field strengths between 1.5 or 3.0 Tesla, the Free.Max can function at a much lower rate of 0.55 Tesla.
Here, we will also share five of its new functions.
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It Can Now Image the Lungs
Typically, imaging lungs is done through or in conjunction with nuclear imaging or X-ray CT scans. This means that the patient has to undergo radiation.
Simonetti explained to the university press, “The air in the lungs cancels out the MRI signal at higher field strength; however, at lower field, there’s potential to see lung tissue more clearly with the MRI. We were looking for ways to improve the quality of images in these patients, and lower magnetic field strength could offer an advantage.”
This is one positive change for patients that suffer from cystic fibrosis pulmonary hypertension, heart failure, as well as those with COVID-19.
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The Machine Is Cheaper
Normally, the usual strength of 1.5 or 3.0, which the current MRI devices use, also means that they are incredibly expensive to manufacture, purchase, install, and operate. Because of this, many outpatient facilities, and even some hospitals, do not offer MRI services at their facility. More so in areas that are considered lower income or rural. In fact, a 2018 study found that ‘only 1% of rural Canadian hospitals even had an MRI machine.’
Most medical imaging companies quote their high-powered MRI machines anywhere from $150,000 to $1 million. Moreover, there is usually a daily operating energy expenditure that costs 10 times the usual amount of the average American household’s energy consumption.
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It Can Now Image Hearts With Implants
Simonetti also shared, “Many of our patients have pacemakers or defibrillators and while many of those devices are now safe for MR scanning, the metal in them can distort the magnetic field and corrupt the image quality. There’s no doubt in my mind that low-field MRI will play an important role in the future and will become more mainstream.”
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It May Cut Down X-Ray Radiation Exposure
Children that have congenital heart diseases or conditions tend to undergo MRI-guided, X-ray heart catheterizations many times throughout their lives, which exposes them to radiation. With the Free.Max, it means a lower field strength, which means that a number of children, like those with lung disease, don’t need to be overexposed to harmful radiation due to endless X-ray requirements.
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A Bigger Opening
Aside from these huge improvements, the Free.Max also has a much bigger opening at 31 inches, which is considered bigger than any other existing MRI machine. This means that it has a much more expanded use, both for patients dealing with obesity, as well as those that tend to get claustrophobic. It’s a true marvel of medical machinery that will push the future of better health forward.
Take a look at the video below to see the new MRI Free.Max machine.
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