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

Hidden monkeys

[LiquidCoooled]

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.

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.

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.

Re:I hope they do away with the tunnels

[kailoran]

I'd assume those shaking heads were muttering "geez, another one" rather than "omg wtf how can someone be afraid of it". Claustrophobia isn't all that unheard of, and being shoved into a friggin pipe is somewhat a powerful trigger.

Re:I hope they do away with the tunnels

[Nyago]

If it were easy (or even moderately hard) to control a phobia, I suspect most people would. Justification is irrelevant. It matters only that the fear exists. Conquering a phobia typically requires exposure (with neutral or rewarding consequences) to the fear-provoking stimulus. In his case, gradual exposure to being in the tube.

I realize that many people find it difficult to understand the lack of control inherent in a phobia. I (with my injection phobia) am often told (by medical professionals) simply to get over it. Unfortunately, when a needle is present, I descend into blind animal panic. My rational mind ceases to function. The thoughts of controlling and pushing through the fear don't even occur to me. It is a pure flight-or-fight response, and I have done both.

Additionally, the guilt of having wasted time (of the doctors or other patients) needlessly adds to the unpleasantness of the situation. His attempts to undergo the procedure are, in my opinion, courageous.

People need help, not guilt or reprimands.

Re:Oy! My payments...

[Turn-X Alphonse]

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.

Re:Article's title is misleading

[ceoyoyo]

The summary is VERY incorrect.

This isn't an ultra low field MRI, it's a DUAL field MRI. In a normal scanner you have a big, static magnetic field that polarizes the sample and remains for readout. In one of these dual field scanners you use the big field (or a bigger field, it's usually a resistive electromagnet so it can't be anywhere near as strong as a superconductor) to polarize the sample then you shut it off and use a much smaller field for readout. There are a few advantages, the one the abstract focuses on is that you can do things like MEG in a very low field. The other is that energy deposition is related to the field strength so by using a small field you can use imaging sequences that would otherwise pump too much energy into the subject.

One of the guys working on this technology visited my lab last year. It was a very interesting presentation.

I believe someone has produced an MR image using the Earth's magnetic field. They've certainly done nMR in the Earth's field. You can't get much lower than that on this planet.

maybe a little bitter about this

[jpfed]

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?

Re:Article's title is misleading

[Anonymous Coward]

Earth's field and low field MRI are actually relatively common. There has even been NMR work done at ~1uT in a shielded chamber.

Re:other implications

[2short]

Ten years ago my girlfriend at the time was involved in research using NIHs 4T human machine, a 3-story tall superconducting magnet. There was a fence outside part of the building with signs saying keep out, strong magnetic fields. But one day my girlfriend told me how the director had to go running outside because some workmen digging a trench were taking down a section of the fence, preparing to bring a backhoe through. After arguing a bit with the construction foreman about this being where the trench was supposed to go, and how he really didn't think a magnet was going to hurt his backhoe, she took one of their shovels and stuck it to the wall. That got their attention long enough to explain how many millions of dollars they would owe her if their backhoe gets sucked though the side of the building and breaks her magnet.