6 - A Weaker, Cheaper MRI

[6]
A Weaker, Cheaper MRI
N. Savage, "A Weaker, Cheaper MRI" IEEE Spectrum, spectrum.ieee.org, January 2008. [Online]. Available: http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/imaging/a-weaker-cheaper-mri. [Accessed: March 13, 2010].

The advent of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was an incredible achievement in both medicine and technology. The ability to properly diagnose an individual or animal non-invasively was a massive step forward in our ability to treat illnesses or injuries. However, with the average cost of an MRI machine hovering around $3 million, in addition to yearly maintenance and operational costs, makes purchasing an MRI machine a difficult feat for, say, a simple clinic in a developing nation.

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a machine that generates a magnetic field with a strength of just one hundred-thousandth of a typical MRI machine's. They say that this lower-field strength produces adequate images that could be capable of detecting tumors almost as well as its big-brother counterpart.

The machine generates a magnetic field of only 46 microteslas, or just over the field strength generated by Earth's magnetic core. The principle of MRI is that a magnetic pulse aligns protons within tissues, and at this strength, few protons will align. So, the machine first emits a 1-second 'prepolarization pulse' of 30 microteslas, which is about as strong as the field generated by a refrigerator magnet.

Such a system could cost as little as $100,000, a dramatic decrease from the few millions of dollars associated with a full-strength 1.5 tesla MRI machine. The machine could even be better at detecting tumors than a full-strength MRI machine, which sometimes drowns out the signals associated with tumors and cancers.