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

Oy! My payments...

[Bayoudegradeable]

And to think I've got to an old-fashioned MRI this week. I can assure you that all the investments in recent big machines will be paid for before the imaging companies switch over to the new smaller units. Of course, they'll just jack the fees even higher to pay for the new machines when they roll out. I can't imagine how much they'll bend us over for MRIs now.