December 7, 2001
Christmas Comes Early At IU With Delivery Of Super MRI Scanner
INDIANAPOLIS - Radiologists and researchers at the Indiana University
School of Medicine have received their biggest and most expensive holiday
present of the year. A $2.2 million Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner,
the most powerful one in the state, was moved by crane Friday, Dec. 7,
to its new home on the medical center campus.
The 10-ton MRI is unique because of its magnetic strength and because
it only images the head, unlike other MRI scanners that perform whole-body
scans. Those scanners can produce anxiety for patients who suffer from
claustrophobia.
The new scanner is 3 Tesla in strength. Tesla is a measurement of magnet
strength.
"The new MRI is twice as strong as any other one in the state of
Indiana and one of the first of this strength in the U.S.," said
Mark Lowe, Ph.D., assistant professor of radiology and director of the
IU School of Medicine 3 T Research MRI Facility. "The federal Food
and Drug Administration only recently approved the use of MRIs of this
strength."
Until now, the strongest MRI in Indiana was 11/2 Tesla. One Tesla is
20,000 times the strength of the magnetic field of the earth, said Dr.
Lowe. It also is equivalent to the strength of the magnets used in salvage
yards to lift automobiles.
"The higher the Tesla, the better the visualization of fine structure
in the brain," said Dr. Lowe. "The new MRI will be state-of-the-art
for imaging neurological structures in the brain as well as blood vessels."
Patients with brain cancers, stroke, blood vessel abnormalities, aneurysms
and other neurologic conditions will benefit from the stronger capacity
of the MRI because a better defined and higher quality image is produced
by the stronger magnetic field, he said.
The magnet in an MRI scanner generates a static magnetic field; additional
equipment modulates the field to generate an image. The stronger the magnet,
the better defined the image.
Funding for the MRI was provided by the IU School of Medicine Department of Radiology.
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Media Contact: Mary Hardin
317-274-7722
mhardin@iupui.edu
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