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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."
I thought the images were of monkeys at first, however when I went to have a look at MRI images of a human head was thankfully proven wrong (some of us have our monkey origins hidden better than others).
So, for comparison here is a page with images of human heads in a normal MRI.
(single image here)
I hope they get the focusing better (which is what I understand the power is used for) because this will be a good progression.
liqbase
Another company, Vista Clara, is using a novel form of ULF MRI to map groundwater.
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.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Hopefully this will also put an end to those pesky MRI accidents. Not that they're common, but still, those things aren't toys.
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.
Please help metamoderate.
Very nice. The images are still very blurry (resolution 81×61×11), and the detectors, at 37mm, are big, but it's a start.
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.
about 50 microteslas http://hypertextbook.com/facts/1999/DanielleCaruso.shtml.
according to the Fine Article:
The measurment field in the article is 46 microteslas.
(A "pre-polarization" field of 30 mT (milliteslas) is appled for one second before each meaurement)
Smaller is nice, but what really needs to be done is to make them cheaper to purchase and operate. That way, even the local small hospitals can, hopefully, afford one. When you're sick and living out in the country, having to drive a hundred miles to the nearest machine can be quite a chore.
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
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..
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).
We have determined that your brain configuration predisposes you to rebellion
(read that as: your head is still attached to your shoulders)
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Maybe this will help bring down health care costs as hopefully these will be a lot cheaper - and hopefully no longer will hospitals in the middle of nowhere have to spend several million dollars on an MRI machine.
Technology certainly doesn't have all the answers, but things like this can only lead to good.
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Its not like the effect used in NMR is _only_ viable at high field strengts.
Its just that higher fields (or more correctly put, higher field gradients) allow for higher resolution.
Looking at this publication, they archived about 5mm resulution with a 50uT field.
Real high-end small bore scanners can get 3 orders of magniture higher.
And the "maybe can it fit in a glovebox" part is _severely_ limited by the use of 7(!) Squids... Each of which will need a LN/LH cryosystem.
Still, this looks quite interesting, but its not like it completely depricates the current stuff.
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
Or you could have a sensible health care system where the rich can have giant breasts and the poor don't die from common and curable things.
You know, just a thought.
I like muppets.
Then maybe I wouldn't have to go out and buy insurance just for the bleeding MRI only to find out my ACL is only partially torn and doesn't need surgery.
Seriously, if you are paying out of pocket the cost of the MRI alone is prohibitive. I find it hard to believe it really costs the operator $1-2K to fire it up for 45 minutes, but IANAC.
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.
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I wonder if this will open up MRIs to those of us who currently cannot have them done. I have a metal-mesh plate in my skull due to an open brain injury, and my doctors repeatedly cautioned that I can never, under any circumstances, undergo an MRI. The electro-magnets are apparently so powerful that they have the ability to rip the plate right out of my head.
So, perhaps now that they've found a way to get around the necessity of humongous electro-magnets, people like me will be able to take on an MRI without fear of a grotesque, horror movie-like death?
"We may face a scorched and lifeless earth, but they're accountable to their shareholders first."
Makes me wonder if they'll be able to throw you in an MRI without removing your metallic objects. Or even a Terminator-style MRI-based walk-through security scanner?
The whole proclaimed need for communications surveillance and arbitary invasions of ideological nations is because there's not a practical warning and defense system against some jackass carrying a bomb.
Now, there is.
If small, portable MRIs can be mass produced, we could have simple scanners that you step through in key areas, and quickly identify if you have explosives on your person. There's no need for trying to figure out who might try and blow someone or something up. Instead, we'll just be able to catch people with explosives as they walk down the street.
The implications of this sort of capability are far reaching. If the state can effectively monitor explosives themselves, there's no need to even really spend too much effort chasing after people, and as such, doesn't have to take draconian measures to protect itself. Empires have again become possible. If the USA had thousands of these things in Iraq, ringing check points and troop locations, or even, if possible, scanning ahead of convoys, then, the only weapon terrorists have would be effectively eliminated. A guy carries explosives somewhere, and he gets caught. Perhaps a state could even follow people buying chemical precursers. RDX (the stuff used to make C4), for example, has some stuff that's rather unusual in its own right. Perhaps a state could follow people that have explosives, for example, if a weapons maker is actually trying to bring parts to the leader of a cell for distribution, you could let him or her actually transport the explosives, and tail him, and bust the larger cell up.
Checkmate, terrorists across the globe. The Capitalist imperialists are about to take away your only weapon. Of course, the downside is, is that, if the third world suddenly has no weapon against a colonial occupation, then, why, one might ask, would we not occupy the third world? If Iraq was only 20 billion a year, there were few casualties, and pumping loads of oil, how many people would really care.
Within our lifetimes, technology such as this will allow the first world to carve up the third. It is inevitable.
This is my sig.
That'll make it much easier to do academic research where they put people in MRI machines and see what happens in the brain when people are doing things like considering moral issues, or experiencing pain. Now more social things can be tracked where you're not bound by the confines of a small tube.
I was recently charged $3000 for a CT scan. Talking to an Indian coworker, I found out that a CT scan in his country would've cost less than $50. So I guess I could've flown out to India, gotten the CT, and flown back, for less money than getting the CT in America.
It's a good thing I did get that expensive modern medical advance in America, though, because of the high-quality analysis and follow-up I got from the clinic. In total, I got one sentence out of it- "Your intestines are a little constricted." I don't think they could provide that kind of advanced analysis in India with their cheap CT scans.
I guess I'm wondering- are modern medical advances really as expensive as we're led to believe they are in America?
You realize there are workarounds and solutions for all the things you said?
.. because the scan would reduce the number of unnecessary doctor visits the hypochondriac makes. Not to mention make it easieer for the docs to tell them to piss off.
.. the scanner can clearly state in bold flashing letters that it can only detect certain types of tumors and that it is not a subsititute for a regular doctor's visit. So that should limit the success of any suits. Think of all the crappy products out on the market right now that don't do shit. I dont see any of the neutraceutical manmufacturers getting sued. It's a balance of lives saved versus competent jruies/judicial system. I rather reform that than have premature deaths caused by lack of early detection.
For one thing, you're already assuming that it is impossible for the machine to be able to tell the difference between tissue types and also to write good enough image analysis software to tell the difference between real tumors and false positives.
If the software and hardware is good, the device would reduce the number of visits to the doctor.
As for hypochondriacs, if false positives can be eliminated it would actually work against them
As for missing a diagnosis
No. It can say "the machine was unable to detect any of the types of large solid tumors we can recognize".
.. cause those products still exist on the market.
Do people sue pregnancy test kits if it tells them they weren't pregnant and they drank alcohol and the baby was born with problems? Or condom manufacturs for getting deadly diseases?
If they do, they havent been very successful
Disclaimers. Use them.
DISCLAIMER: The above post is not meant to encourage or discourage anyone from getting into the home MRI business. Author assumes no liability for failure of any home MRI ventures or investments. Your success may vary. Results not typical.
think of the giant superconducting magnets?
Grammar Nazi
Uh...you could always choose not to have/pay for them then.
Ditto, of course to the dim nitwits who took the iron things into the MRI scanning room. If the US is going to try to keep its preeminence as a world power it had better start building a few new schools, and pay the teachers sufficient to get good people to do the job.
That assumes you can make an informed decision knowing whether or not they are covered by your insurance, and if they are, whether or not you can trust that your insurer won't come up with a flimsy pretext later on for denying the claim and sticking you with the bill.
Many people don't realize that helium is a limited resource. It's only source are pockets found with petroleum and natural gas, as a byproduct of radioactive decay. Once it is used it evaporates from the atmosphere.
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I understand that can often be a tricky decision, but for this case, isn't the decision to have an MRI not exactly one you need to make quickly? I don't generally think of having an MRI or not as an on-the-spot decision.
I don't see it as an on-the-spot decision either but I also don't see why that's even relevant. So what if there's plenty of time to deliberate with bad information? If the doctor says it's necessary and the insurance company says it's covered (to the extent that they ever guarantee anything) then most people will have the procedure. That doesn't justify being jerked around after the fact on the basis of some stupid technicality.
I have a chronic neurological disorder that causes me to wake up in an ER strapped to a gurney once or twice a year. (The U.S. health care system is designed to "disincentivize" you from having a condition like that.) On one of these ER visits, which insurance later refused to cover for some reason, I asked for a Tylenol to relieve a pounding headache- a mistake I'll never make again. They charged me eighteen dollars for a single tablet. Acetaminophen was invented in the 19th century.
I gave this issue some thought tonight. If a quality MRI machine costs say $100 and weighs less than 10 pounds, what new technologies would we see?
I couldn't come up with very much. Maybe you can? Could you make a scanner that scans a whole book at once with an MRI, since it could take a 3D image of the insides of the book and then split it into pages with software? I guess it would have to detect locations where there is ink by looking for those molecules?
The linked abstract says they were able to acquire the images using low field strength because they used SQUIDS. The problem with this strategy is you trade a huge room with a large supercooled magnet for a large room that is magnetically shielded and smaller supercooled sensors. Once produced in quantity the cost and size will probably be about the same. With lower image quality for lower field strengths.
The one advantage may be for people with magnetically sensitive implantable devices such as cochlear implants, defibrillators or older pacemakers.
OK I see what you're saying
Sooner or later someone'll discover that a strong magnetic fields give you brain cancer, and why not?.. everything else does. And then those nifty personal MRI's will be placed in a landfill somewhere.
So how is it possible, as another poster claims, for a $3000 MRI to cost $50 in India? Do the machines cost only $50,000 there instead of $3M, support contracts $2K instead of $125K, electricity 60 times cheaper, etc.? Something doesn't, as they say, "add up".
Helium shortage? Just make some new helium then... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER#Reactor_overview/
Unfortunately, it's just a picture of the researcher's thumb.
Comment of the year
Ha! Here in Canada, the waiting list for an MRI is over 3 months! It's not uncommon for people to go to the United States and outright pay for one instead of waiting. And our government does not pay for these out-of-country tests.
I believe the post you are referring to mentioned a CT scan, not an MRI. While both are imaging techniques, they are quite different in how they work. MRIs are much, much more expensive in general. They require the supercooled magnets and such. A CT is essentially using the same type of radiation as in used in a normal X-RAY to get sliced images. CTs are much faster at acquiring images and the equipment is much cheaper than an MRI. Both of the factors make it much less expensive overall.
And was the precursor to Star Trek, and homage was paid to it with the purist ship on Mars in Enterprise.
Cool!
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
assuming you are both right on the basic facts, why is there such a large disrepcancy in price ?
For instance, the 3M cost - if we don't know what margin GE or Siemens is getting, we don't know how realistic that price is - maybe it only costs GE 500K to actually build the machine, so they could, if they wanted, sell it for 1 M...
Or maybe india has a second hand, but still fully usable machine (your center -where did your last machine go ?)
I don't know what the cost of 5oK refridgeration is, but i do know that liquid nitrogen is awfully cheap.
The one I've got experience with (yearly) sounds like people with jackhammers working outside.
Yeah, that's why the Quebec Supreme Court decided that waiting for medical treatment until you die doesn't constitute medical treatment. Because socialized medicine works so well.
Of course then there's the inherent unjustness and potential for criminal behavior of socialized medicine that seems to get just about no mindshare. If the average Canadian has to wait three months for an MRI, we can be quite sure the Prime Minister doesn't. How about the other members of the cabinet? Their spouses? How about the Prime Minister's security detail? Their spouses? Their children?
Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
Or you could have a sensible health care system where the rich can have giant breasts and the poor don't die from common and curable things.
When you can figure out how to do that without holding a gun to my head to force me to pay for it, I'll back you 100%.
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Hate to rain on your parade, but MRI is a pretty common one. Maybe not as quite as common as FBI or some such, but most people would expect you to know it.
To make an assessment with an MRI you need to have a minimal level of detail to make conclusions about.
Above a certain level of bluriness you miss all the interesting bits (presence of blood, etc.).
With the current level of detail produced by this technique, the only thing you could safely assess is whether the patient has still his head present. Which isn't very useful.
And what would be interesting is what level of detail are technically achievable, before hitting some hard limits of physics law.
For exemple, higher magnetic fields usually yields higher resolutions, but you can't just crank up the field indefinitely, because above a certain threshold you loose contrast between the brain's grey and white matter : you get finer pixels from the machine but everything looks the same which defies the initial purpose. Also, higher field tend to be more difficult to be made homogeneous. Irregularity in the magnetic field results in distortions of the signal.
A lot of similar limitation must probably exist in lower limits of field strength (I just didn't study them so can't give a lot of concrete exemple. I mainly worked with 3Telsa machines). The main issue would probably be that, MRI image are usually a compromise between the signal/noise ratio (among other). To get a sufficient resolution (where the finest detail you can see are more meaningful than the head present/absent status) on very low fields would seriously impart the SNR.
Which is going to be worse on smaller magnetic fields. One of the reasons are, some of the timing parameters tend to be longer with lower fields. Thus the measures sample (the patient body part) is exposed for longer period of times to external factors that can disturb the process between the stimulation emission and the signal reading. Those will translate into more noise into the final image, limiting how much signal you can get with a given field and thus the maximal resolution you can hope to use before the resulting picture start to look like a snow storm.
The authors of the article are trying to circumvent part of the problems using ultra sensitive antennas (Squids) and thus boost the SNR.
Also, other technique could be used to increase the quality of the image, like imagery of the blood vessels - like stimulating the blood as it goes out of the hearth and then reading the signal at the brain level : because when you do this the blood is mostly the only thing emitting a signal, you get much less noise, and perhaps you could get clinically useful images (showing the permeability of blood vessel, to see if some did get blocked by cholesterol and blood clot - useful for distinguishing stroke and haemorrhage, for example - the exact kind of test where a quick imaging solution available at the doctors office may help)
BTW: To other radiologist geeks around, from the last time we spoke about MRIs : As I said, the non ferromagnetic object (aluminium ruler) didn't fly inside the 3T machine.
Note: If some physics geek would like to step in to give his opinion about improving image quality at low fields ?
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Or he can hold a gun to your head, and then you'll be backing him 100%.
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