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

Re:I hope they do away with the tunnels

[scottv67]

For some reason I find that your comment suits your screen name just fine...

Of course I understand completely that people don't have to justify their phobias, but you have to admit that you must have caused quite a few shaken heads, raised eyebrows, and sighs of exasperation on behalf of the medical staff. Especially considering that because of their scarcity such machines usually have a line of people waiting for them.

Fucking fuck you, you fucking judgmental prick. "Exasperated medical staff"? Go fuck yourself. Read my story (which is quite similar to the story posted by pair-a-noyd.) I am not normally claustrophobic but when I had to scrunch my shoulders together to fit into the bore of the MRI machine, that was a little too tight for me. It was like being stuffed headfirst into a sewer pipe.

As for the med techs who have "shaken heads and raised eyebrows", one of the techs who was in the room when I was supposed to be scanned commented that I should have been scheduled for the "large bore" MRI. Even the MRI techs know that certain people don't fit into the old, small-bore MRI.

Especially considering that because of their scarcity such machines usually have a line of people waiting for them.

Scarcity? I had no problem scheduling a scan at CDI (http://www.cdiradiology.com/), a place that is actually concerned about patient comfort and doesn't mock people who don't like playing "i'm the cork in the bottle". CDI actually gets a lot of referral business because people can't stand being in the small-bore MRI machines.

So fuck you, you obnoxious twit. Not all of us are 150lb beanpole geeks with the build of a 10 year-old-boy.

idiot

[MillionthMonkey]

Well you could always go back to the 19th century and avoid hospitals if you don't like modern medical advances (which are quite expensive).

I'd actually prefer to go back to the 1950s. By then we had penicillin, X-rays, sanitation, hygiene, anesthesia, and a health care system that cost us less than what we spent on food. I could do without the expensive gimmicky crap like MRIs (of which I have had several, all completely useless).

Re:maybe a little bitter about this

[nido]

I guess I'm wondering- are modern medical advances really as expensive as we're led to believe they are in America?

The real advances in modern medicine are the cheap ones that actually treat the root causes of a problem. Nutrition, Osteopathic Manipulation, IV therapies (w/ vitamins, EDTA, H202, and others), Energy Medicine, etc.

Most the other 'advances' can best be explained as 'profiteering' - clinics have to pay for for their $million+ MRI machine somehow, and the handful of cases a month where they're actually justified isn't going to pay the bills..

See links on how healthcare became screwed up, read Dr. Davidson's testimonial pages for examples of conditions which respond well to Cranial Osteopathy, check out Donna Eden's system of Energy Medicine, and get yourself a copy of Dr. Reilly's Handbook for Health Through Drugless Therapy, and I'm sure you can easily get your intestine flowing freely again.