Low Field MRI scanners create new opportunities
Cette publication existe aussi en Français
Where normal MRI scanners operate between 1.5 and 3 Tesla, the low field MRI scanner can do almost the same job at .05 Tesla
MRI scanners are technology wonders and are a important tool for doctors to make the diagnose. To create high resolution scans you need to make sure that the signal is way above the electromagnetic noise that is all around us. The higher the MRI field, the easier it is to create high resolution scans. That also means the scanner needs a control room and cannot change location.
But now universities and research institutions and focusing on an alternative approach: the low field MRI scanner and with very interesting results. The low field scanner uses less energy, you can plug it into a normal socket. The radiation levels are low, you don’t interfere with other frequencies. With these two specifics this new technology is interesting alone for far away and difficult to reach places. The scanner is relatively small (compared to the normal MRI scanners) and easy to transport. You can bring the scanner to the patient rather than the patient to the scanner.
The low field also measures the Electromagnetic fields around the scanner. With deep learning algorithms they filter out the signal from the noise enhancing the resolution of the measurement.
The resolution of the low field technology is clearly lower than with a normal MRI scanner, but in most cases good enough to do a first diagnose and use that for the first treatments. See the picture from the Yale School of Medicine.
Please check the Yale school of Medicine for more information – search for ‘Low field MRI’ to find more research documentation.
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
