NEWEST, MOST SOPHISTICATED MRI TESTING
AVAILABLE AT TBH
From left to right, the
MRI staff at The Bellevue Hospital –
Bette Mapus, Teresa Hartley, Brian
Decker, Radiologist Dr. Steven Zieber,
and Diagnostic Imaging Leader Marc
Schoen – show off TBH’s new Vantage
Titan MRI unit. It is currently the
largest open-bore MRI in the
four-county area.
Teresa Hartley, with
The Bellevue Hospital’s Diagnostic
Imaging staff, displays how much room
there is in TBH’s new Vantage Titan
MRI unit. It is currently the largest
open-bore MRI unit in the four-county
area.
The Bellevue
Hospital (TBH) has acquired the latest and
most sophisticated fixed (1.5 Tesla)
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) unit
available when it upgraded to a Vantage
Titan ™ MRI unit from Toshiba. The new
ultra-short, open-bore MRI is nearly 20
percent larger than TBH’s previous MRI.
The new MRI also features the largest
available clinical field-of-view (FOV) of
55 x 55 x 50 centimeters allowing your
doctor to see what he needs to see but
still keep you comfortable while in the
scanner.
The hospital’s
MRI unit is the largest open-bore MRI in
the four-county area, according to Marc
Schoen, TBH’s Diagnostic Imaging Leader.
“This unit replaces both the previous
fixed and mobile MRI units. With the
addition of this new Toshiba MRI, TBH now
has the largest opening, and highest
quality, of any MRI unit in the area,
fixed or mobile,” added Schoen.
MRIs use a combination of
radio waves and a strong magnetic field to
create computer reconstructed images of
the body.
“The Vantage
Titan system offers the largest and widest
bore available with a significant increase
in signal to noise ratio which results in
better images” said David West, M.D, a
board certified Radiologist with TBH’s
Diagnostic Imaging Department. “The large
field of view is unique for this bore size
and produces high-quality images without
compromising overall image performance. In
addition, the unit offers more room for
patients and decreased noise creating a
better experience for the patient.”
Because of the wide
opening, this new Vantage Titan unit is
perfect for claustrophobic patients,
especially since 70% of all procedures can
be performed feet first, meaning the
patient’s head can be kept outside the
bore.
“Overall, with
the larger open-bore, we can offer imaging
for patients up to 550 pounds and it is
also a real benefit for patients who are
claustrophobic,” added Dr. West.
According to Dr. West, perhaps
the most significant advancement with this
MRI unit is Toshiba’s Jet technology.
“Using sophisticated state of the art
computer algorithms, Jet allows for
improvement in image quality with motion
compensation. Often, small movements by
patients during an MRI test are
unavoidable. With our previous unit, if
there was significant patient motion, the
image was often non-diagnostic (useless).
Now, we can adjust not only for the
unavoidable small movements, but often
even for large movements. We worked
hand-in hand with Toshiba during
installation and setup and the end result
is are images that are simply stunning.”
Dr. West notes that JET
technology especially benefits patients
with uncontrolled motion such as in
multiple sclerosis. Parkinson’s Disease,
restless leg syndrome, and other patients
who simply cannot lie still for extended
periods of time.
Continued Dr. West, “Our new
MRI also allows us to perform non-contrast
imaging. Before, patients were almost
always injected with ‘contrast,’ a
solution that allows us to ‘map’ and ‘see’
areas of the body that we could not see
without the contrast. While contrast is
still sometimes necessary, often we can
get better images without contrast on the
new MRI than we could with contrast on the
old MRI. New studies are now possible
that we simply could not do before. We
can now perform CSF flow studies (cerebral
spinal fluid flow), a test we could not
perform with our previous unit.”
The new unit also has
Toshiba’s patented Pianissimo technology,
which dramatically reduces acoustic noise,
the most significant cause of patient
discomfort during an MRI exam, according
to studies.
Other advantages to The Bellevue
Hospital’s new MRI unit:
Table flexibility: Serves
patients with a table that
lowers to less than 17 inches
off the floor, offering
greater access for pediatric
and geriatric patients.
Arm rests: Conveniently
located on both sides of the
table, improving patient
comfort.
Atlas Integrated Coil
Technology: Integrated coils
increase the speed of the
imaging process during
multiple exam requests.
Non-contrast MRA exams:
Vantage Titan offers a safer
alternative for performing
rapid, high resolution MRA’s
(magnetic resonance
angiograms) without using
contrast agents. This helps to
shorten exam time and increase
patient comfort and safety.
MRA’s provide pictures of
blood vessels inside the body.
Open view exams: The design of
the machine allows patients’
views to remain unobstructed
during an exam, which
significantly reduces the
feeling of claustrophobia.
For additional
information on TBH’s MRI options, contact
Centralized Scheduling at 419.483.4040, Ext.
4326.
