Portable Brain Scanner to Save Premature Babies

Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers at UCL (University College London) are developing a portable brain scanner which could help save the lives of premature and newborn babies in intensive care by avoiding to move them to conventional scanning facilities. A current prototype combines the advantages of both magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound. It uses optical tomography to generate images showing how the brain is working and a new generation should be ready by 2008 and such scanners should be commercially available shortly after."

Comments

Not just babies

[brohan]

Small portable MRI's could not be used only for babies.

I've got a problem with my knee, which was diagnosed without actually *seeing* it through an x-ray machine. With the resolution of an MRI it would likley be visible. Assuming my knee is as big as a babies head, this could be used in orthapedic applications as well.

From the pictures in the article, I figure its big enough to fit most limbs in it.

Sometimes I wonder...

[the_humeister]

Being in the medical field, I can't help but wonder about the discrepancy between people wanting lower health care costs and their expectations for modern health care to perform miracles. They seem to me to be mutually exclusive. While innovative technologies such as the one described in the article are fascinating, it will surely drive up NICU costs even more if it is adopted. Of course ICUs in general are money sinks anyway.

Re:Sometimes I wonder...

[Explodicle]

I can't help but wonder about the discrepancy between people wanting lower health care costs and their expectations for modern health care to perform miracles.

I know! What is WITH people always demanding lower prices AND better products/services? Pick ONE, folks!

MRI helped save my twins

[core]

I'm a dad of twin girls born very prematurely and with an extreme low weight (2 pounds each, basically). They stayed one month in ICU with dedicated monitoring 24/7. Today they're 18 months old, completely healthy with no sequels of their prematurity, partly because they had all the equipment at the ICU (MRI notably); if they moved the girls to a conventional facility they would have been in great danger. Needless to say I'm eternally grateful to medical advancements and the medical personnel that provides the care; I live in a country where we pay taxes through the nose, but I don't mind paying taxes for that purpose :)

Best regards,
Emmanuel

Sorry it's no real MRI

[DrYak]

Problem is : it's not a real MRI. A portative MRI would be a REAL public danger because it has to generate ultra-strong magnetic fields to function properly.

This is just a bunch of lasers shining light through their target.
It only works on newborns' head because :
- Their skull is thin on most places and even un-fused in some places : light can easily go in.
- Their head is small so that the laser travels a short path and isn't absorbed that much and therefor still caries useful information when going out.

It's unusable for knees because they're to big and the bone is WAY to thick (one of the thickest. Remember : it has to support your body's weight).