Researchers are pushing imaging to extraordinary new limits

CMRR director Kamil Ugurbil, Ph.D., 

stands next to the new 10.5T magnet 

photo courtesy of University of Minnesota

10.5-tesla magnets yield unprecedented imaging detail

PARCA eNews – Nov. 15, 2018 – Armed with a magnet weighing 3 times more than a Boeing 737 along with 600 tons of iron shielding, researchers at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Magnetic Resonance research subjected a human subject for the first time to an hour-long imaging study of the patient’s hips.

The MRI occurred after four years of research with the gigantic MRI in animals. According to an Oct. 31, 2018 article in Nature the $14 million scanner is one of a handful around that world pushing MRI to new limits of magnetic strength.

Current MRIs in hospitals use 1.5 tesla or 3 tesla magnets, but in the quest for ever higher resolutions a handful of these new 7T machines have been installed in research labs around the world. The first 7T MRI machines were cleared for clinical use in the US and Europe last year. Three 10T machines are operational in the world.

The appeal is to increase the signal to noise ratio to allow greater resolution or to cut imaging time. The scanners offer detail that was once only seen in thinly sliced postmortem samples using high-powered microscopes.

The biological side effects are temporary and usually involve dizziness, and vertigo. Overcoming the huge size, weight, and cost, however, may be the least of the challenges to widespread adoption. Installation of the University of Minnesota machine was delayed for a year due to a worldwide shortage of helium needed to energize the magnet.

Sources: Nature and UMMC press release