TechFront Research and Development in Manufacturing and Technology
Ultra-Strong MRIs Show Promise for Neuroscience, Other Research
N
ew ultra-strong, high-field magnetic resonance im- aging (MRI) full-body scanners under development by GE Healthcare (Little Chalfont, Buckingham-
shire, UK) and Tesla Engineering UK (Pulborough, West Sussex, UK) will be used by researchers to speed detection and improve therapies for Parkinson’s disease and a host of other disorders. GE and Tesla Engineering on May 12 announced its collaboration at the joint meeting in Milan, Italy, of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and the European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology (ESMRMB) under which the companies will build 7.0-tesla (7.0T) full-body MRI scanners. Tesla Engineering is currently build- ing a new plant in Storrington, UK, that will manufacture 7.0T magnets, which are much more powerful that the 1.5 or 3.0T magnets currently used in standard MRI machines. These ultra-high-field MRI systems are used in scientific and medical research mostly for morphological and functional imaging of the brain, although their use is expanding to other areas. Tesla’s first production unit from the new factory will go to GE and is scheduled to be shipped in late 2015.
A 7T magnet uses similar technology to standard clinical magnets, noted Tesla Engineering’s Simon Pittard in GE Re- ports, and the 7T magnet is about 11' (3.4-m) long and weighs about 40 tons (362.9t). The 7T magnets uses 10 times more wire and stores approximately five times more energy than a 3T magnet, Pittard said, and engineers cool the 7T magnet’s wiring to 4º above zero to achieve superconductivity and gener- ate its powerful magnetic field. “This agreement will enable GE to deepen and broaden our collaborations with leading MRI academics and visionaries, sharing our collective expertise and
missions in technology, science and medicine,” said Richard Hausmann, president and CEO of GE Healthcare, MR. Teams of researchers using 7.0T MRI technology already are making breakthrough observations and understanding of Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injury and cognitive physiology, Hausmann said. Researchers have shown promis- ing results using the GE 7.0T MRI technology with its GE Discovery MR 950 7T, an investigational medical device under the US Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
A side-to-side comparison of brain images generated by 3T and 7T MRI machines.
A research team headed by Dr. Michela Tosetti at the IMAGO7 Research Foundation in Pisa, Italy, the home of the first European GE 7T machine at the University of Pisa, has pub- lished its findings online in the June 2014 issue of the publica- tion Radiology in a paper entitled “MR Imaging of the Substantia Nigra at 7 T Enables Diagnosis of Parkinson Disease.” To down- load the research page, visit
www.TinyURL.com/7-0TMRI. ME
Engineers Develop New Ceramic Materials for Hydrogen Storage
R
esearchers at the University of California, San Diego, have created new ceramic materials that hold potential for
July 2014 |
ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com 41
Image courtesy Stanford University
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