Artificial intelligence continues to drive the latest technological advances in MR, and has been employed to help make scans faster and remove noise from images. This is increasingly important as pandemic-related backlogs continue to impact healthcare systems.

Here’s a look at the latest in MR scanners, software and coils from several manufacturers.

Canon Medical Systems
Canon Medical Systems rebranded a feature called EasyTech as Auto Scan Assist. The new, AI-powered solution helps automate slice alignment for the exam, so a technologist who is not experienced with a specific exam, for the liver, prostate or spine, can perform one. It also reduces patient table time, increasing patient comfort, said Tim Joseph, managing leader of strategic development for the MR business unit for Canon Medical Systems.

“This tool, in a single click, can identify whether the anatomy is or is not centered in the bore and then align all of the slices automatically, so the technologist doesn't have to do anything but verify slice positions,” Joseph said. “We also have a new single-click alignment feature for the entire spine, if you're doing a spine survey, which takes a long time to meticulously position all of the axial slices. That technologist can spend a lot of time identifying all of those slice locations. The system does it automatically for them. It's also really nice for repeat patients coming back for rescans to improve consistency in slice positioning.”

The company also offers a new camera to assist with patient alignment and decrease rescans.

Canon also introduced a new tablet user interface that connects to the scanner and allows the technologist to check in with the next patient remotely before the exam, with their medical questionnaire and health history, and even select scanning protocols before they come into the exam room.

“Being able to find efficiencies inside the scanner and shorten exam times with things like Compressed Speeder and with all of the acceleration techniques that we have, we are also looking elsewhere to speed up that process; and one of those ways is to have the patient ready prior to the one that's on the table,” Joseph said. “It makes for what we think is a nice, accelerated workflow.”

Canon also has replaced its Orian Aero X 1.5T scanner, which has a 16- or 32-channel option, with the Vantage Fortian, to distinguish it from the Orian scanner, which has 128 channels. The new system incorporates the new ceiling camera and tablet. The Vantage Fortian was FDA cleared after last year’s RSNA.

At last year’s RSNA, Canon released its new Shape Coil, a multipurpose blanket coil with 16 elements that can be used for abdominal, pelvis, cardiac, and prostate and knee scans.

“It has a great deal of versatility and it’s very lightweight and user friendly,” said Mark Totina, managing director of marketing for the MR business unit for Canon Medical Systems.

Esaote North America
Coming off the heels of FDA approval in February, Esaote North America announced in July it had completed the first installation of the Magnifico Open MRI system at the Sport Ortho Urgent Care clinic in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Inspired by customers and designed for the user, the Magnifico Open aims to bridge the gap between traditional musculoskeletal and whole-body imaging.

"We are thrilled to bring this pioneering technology to Sport Ortho Urgent Care," said Robert Lewis, president and general manager of Esaote North America, in a statement. “We look forward to a successful partnership and are excited for our new colleagues to experience the innumerable benefits the Magnifico Open will bring to patient care.”

Equipped with advanced technologies like Speed Up, True Motion, and Metal Artifact Reduction (MAR) for patients with metal implants, the Magnifico Open offers versatility in imaging across a wide range of clinical applications. Designed for patient comfort, the open gantry design is ideal for scanning claustrophobic patients, children, and large adults and has a compact footprint uniquely suited for hospitals, imaging centers, and in-office clinics.

GE Healthcare
Last fall, GE Healthcare unveiled the SIGNA Hero, a new 3.T scanner, named to honor the healthcare workers who supported their communities during the pandemic. The scanner comes with magnet technology capable of lowering helium usage up to 67%.

The SIGNA Hero also includes GE’s AIR Recon DL deep learning image reconstruction technology that the company says reduces exam time by 30, up to 50% and has been used on more than two million patients globally.

The company recently received approval by the FDA to expand the AIR Recon DL technology for 3D applications and for motion-corrected PROPELLER-based sequences, said Ioannis Panagiotelis, chief marketing officer for MR at GE Healthcare.

“Effectively, we’re expanding it from something like 70% coverage of the typical clinical protocols to at least 90%,” Panagiotelis said. “So even more patients will benefit from the solution.”

The company also unveiled the SIGNA Evo upgrade that allows facilities to upgrade their 60-centimeter bore to a 70-centimeter wide bore without changing the magnet and causing a backlog in exams.

“This is really impacting millions of customers out there, potentially,” Panagiotelis said.

GE also released a new system called the SIGNA Prime, an entry-level 1.5T scanner with a 60-centimeter bore, designed with a workflow ideal for technologists who are new MR users.

“We wanted to create a system where the learning curve to use and operate it can be pared down to a matter of hours,” added Panagiotelis.

The company recently unveiled a new application called oZTEo that enables MR imaging of bones that’s comparable to CT, for patients who shouldn’t be exposed to radiation.

Fujifilm
At last year’s RSNA, FUJIFILM Healthcare Americas Corporation unveiled the Velocity, a 1.2T high-field open scanner. The system is designed for general MRI studies for all patients, and offers a high-performance alternative for claustrophobic, anxious, bariatric, geriatric and pediatric patients.

The scanner has the ability to use integrated coils with double the RF channels, including a new blanket coil, that can be left on the table, said Shawn Etheridge, executive director of CT and MR marketing for FUJIFILM Healthcare Americas Corporation.

“That is a tremendous workflow advantage,” Etheridge said.

The Velocity also comes with the IP-RAPID iterative reconstruction technology; AI-based image enhancement that allows for reduced scan time by up to 40% depending on the application.

“It gives people another degree of freedom in terms of optimizing scan time and image quality,” Etheridge said.

ScanMed
ScanMed will soon be listed as Siemens Healthineers Authorized Coil Manufacturers and will appear on their MAGNETOM Local Coil Program (MLCP) website. The goal of the website is to inform both Siemens customers and sales force which third-party coil providers are part of the program as well as to inform about the program details.

ScanMed’s Coil solutions for prostate and pelvis, as well as pediatric brain and body/spine MR imaging at 1.5T and 3T will be listed.

ScanMed’s pediatric brain coils come in three different sizes, which allows for the 16 antenna elements to be closer to the patient’s anatomy, leading to better performance.

ScanMed’s prostate/pelvic PROCURE coils are certified by Siemens on all of their 1.5T systems, will soon be certified on their 3T systems, and will be available in the company’s online and mailed catalogs of MR scanners and accessories.

The company also recently finished the second clinical study of the ProstatID software from its sister company Bot Image Inc., which uses AI to assist radiologists in prostate cancer detection through MR. Both studies showed statistical improvement of reader performance in prostate cancer detection and diagnosis, said Randy Jones, chief executive officer of Scanmed and Bot Image.

“All in all, the clinical studies demonstrated that the product performs as advertised,” Jones said.

Siemens Healthineers
This year, Siemens Healthineers began offering Deep Resolve Boost and Deep Resolve Swift Brain, both of which were introduced at RSNA 2021 and cleared by the FDA in March. Boost and Swift Brain are part of the Deep Resolve family of AI technologies; an expanding collection of AI-based algorithms that perform intelligently targeted denoising, and create high-resolution images with faster scan times.

Deep Resolve Boost employs deep learning technology to reconstruct raw imaging data, enabling high signal-to-noise ratio at very fast image acquisition times. Deep Resolve Swift Brain for neurological imaging uses a multi-shot echo planar imaging (EPI) approach and enables a complete brain scan, including all five main contrasts, within two minutes.

Also part of the Deep Resolve family are Deep Resolve Sharp, which generates a high-resolution image from low-resolution input, and Deep Resolve Gain, which applies targeted denoising, allowing for twice the improvement in resolution, said Troy Havens, MR senior product marketing manager at Siemens Healthineers North America.

“A term a lot of our customers use is ‘MR equity,’ where they can use [Deep Resolve] to mark currency for faster scan time, higher resolution, or any combination in between,” Havens said.

The Deep Resolve technology is available on the MAGNETOM Sola and MAGNETOM Altea 1.5T systems and the MAGNETOM Vida and MAGNETOM Lumina 3T scanners.

Deep Resolve Boost and Swift Brain are available on MAGNETOM Vida, Vida Fit and Lumina 3T systems as part of the Boost package, while the rest of the technologies are available on the rest of the MAGNETOM family of scanners.

United Imaging
United Imaging recently submitted an application to the FDA for the next major software update for the uMR OMEGA, the world’s only ultra-wide-bore, high-field-strength scanner.

The uMR OMEGA comes with AI-based compressed sensing (ACS), which was FDA cleared for United Imaging’s uMR 780 scanner in 2020 but is now 510(k) pending for the uMR OMEGA. It also features DeepRecon, a raw-data-based deep learning reconstruction, additional AI-assisted EasyScan applications and 10 additional sequences for musculoskeletal, oncology, neurology and cardiovascular applications.

The new software, once available, will be delivered at no charge to United Imaging’s installed base under warranty or service agreement as part of the company’s Software Upgrades for Life program. Customers are also eligible for applications training to maximize their use of new techniques.

“We believe that commitment to upgrades and training is very important because it can increase applications for patients by continuously increasing clinical capabilities,” said Jeffrey Bundy, chief operating officer of United Imaging Healthcare Solutions, “and that, in turn, helps our customers grow their businesses and maximize their investment over time.”