First Image Taken With an Ultra Low Field MRI

KentuckyFC writes "MRI machines are about to get smaller, much smaller. Most of their bulk is taken up by the huge superconducting magnets required to generate fields of a few Teslas. Now a team at the Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico has built a machine that can produce images using a field of only a few microTesla (PDF, abstract here). So giant superconducting magnets aren't necessary, a development that has the potential to make MRI machines much smaller, perhaps even suitcase-sized. The one-page paper shows sections of the first 3D brain image taken with the device."

Comments

Stronger pre-polarizatin field is used

[flyingfsck]

Hmm, they use a prepolarization field of 30 mT for 1 second before using the weaker measurement field of 46 uT. So I'm wondering why they don't just use the 30 mT field and be done with it.

MRI accidents

[l00sr]

Hopefully this will also put an end to those pesky MRI accidents. Not that they're common, but still, those things aren't toys.

other implications

[SuperBanana]

Off the top of my head, some plusses and negatives.

Plusses: less (very expensive) liquid helium or (less expensive but still $$) liquid nitrogen. Less of a magnetic field means much higher MRI safety; everything from oxygen cylinders to chairs to guns have been drawn into/against MRIs (the gun was a prison guard who got pushy and DEMANDED to be in the same room as a prisoner. Yeah, the gun went off. No, nobody was hurt.)

Negatives: since the MRI isn't as strong, it might be more affected by local magnetic fields from wiring, ferrous objects, etc. Dunno. Right now, MRIs are installed into big rooms that have as little ferrous material as possible, and then very carefully "shimmed" to adjust for the building and local magnetic fields by a technician. Even if an MRI gets down to "suitcase" size, the necessity of a "clean" environment and calibration for each location might make moving them around very tough.

As a side note, there are already shielded MRI machines which work in a trailer and require little setup time, but being outdoors makes things easier- no building infrastructure to mess with the magnetic fields.

Re:other implications

[tgilk]

Man, I'd love to get the details on that! I'm an architect that specializes in MRI facility design & construction and I'd love to be able to document that story.

Another similar story, an MRI facility in Arkansas had just been built and the Fire Marshal was on his way to do the final inspection. However, before he got there, the sprinkler contractor decided to take the oxyacetylene torch rig into the room to fix a leaky sprinkler head. The magnet grabbed the tanks, drew them inside, snapped the valve off, the spark from which ignited the gases. The fire caught the magnet and building on fire, totaling both.

I hope they do away with the tunnels

[pair-a-noyd]

I had to have several MRI & CT scans and that friggin tunnel is more than I can handle.
They tried to put me in one with the normal little tunnel (about as big around as a five gallon bucket) and I freaked out before I got 2' into it and made them back me out. Then they put me in an "open" MRI machine but it was like being crushed under a car. No way Jose. Abort #2.
So I went to another city where they had a different kind that was a little more "open" than #2.
This one then pumped me full of Xanax and I survived it.

The CT scan was not quite as bad because it was like a large doughnut and there was only about 1' of my body inside it but it still freaked me out.
Xanax on that one too.

I swore I'll die before I ever go in one of those damn things ever again.
They need to come up with a better way. Some people can't handle that crap.
I hope these new ones are a break away from the "trapped in a pipe" or "crushed under a car" machines.

In home MRI scanner

[backslashdot]

I wonder if this could finally lead to an "in home" MRI scanner? If it costs under a thousand bucks and a person has a family history of cancer, why not invest in one?

Basically the device would be conveniently rolled over the bed once a month or so and scan. It will utilize advanced 3D image analysis to compare with last couple month's scan and see if you have any growing tumors. If so then you go get a proper scan done.

This will go well with the "in toilet" piss or shit tester that will tell you if you're going diabetic or may be developing some other medical conditions for example like kidney disease or cancer, etc..

Re:Oy! My payments...

[guruevi]

I work at one of those MRI places and we do research and we are a non-profit. Although we're quite fully booked every day the use of the MRI still cost ~$500/hour. Basically the cost of operation divided by the number of scans done last year makes the price. Or do you think supercooling magnets to ~5K (that's Kelvin, convert to Celsius or Fahrenheit yourself) 24/7, the machine itself (~$3m) and support contract (~$125k) are paid for by the government not talking about the workstations to process the data and of course, my daily food?

About the article: those pictures are pretty unclear but it's promising.