by
Lauren Dubinsky, Senior Reporter | October 02, 2017
From the October 2017 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
The University of Wisconsin-Madison acquired the SIGNA Premier through a research agreement with GE. It has scanned between 120 and 150 healthy volunteers and 230 clinical patients as part of an institutional review board evaluation.
Another advantage of the SuperG gradients is that they can be used with diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) as a powerful tool for detecting stroke and characterizing cancer.
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“DWI is very demanding on the system and requires high-performance gradients,” says Dr. Scott Reeder, chief of MR imaging and vice chairman of research at the university. “We have noticed significant improvements in performance for DWI, largely because of the improved gradient performance.”
In February, Siemens Healthineers got the FDA nod for its Compressed Sensing MR acceleration technology, which is available on its MAGNETOM Aera 1.5T and MAGNETOM Skyra 3T systems. With this technology, cardiac cine imaging can be completed in 16 seconds compared to the conventional four minutes.
Rather than having to hold their breath 10 to 14 times, patients are able to breathe freely during the exam. This eliminates motion artifacts that are created by breathing and heartbeats, which is especially useful for older, critically ill and pediatric patients.
“If you’re performing the exam fast enough that the patient doesn’t have to hold their breath, you’re expanding the clinical capabilities and the patient population you can reach,” says Chris Farischon, MR product manager at Siemens. “Patients who may not have been able to have a cardiac MR exam previously could now potentially have one of those exams.”
Faster scan time is not just something for research and academic facilities. In February, Siemens got FDA clearance for its MAGNETOM Sempra, a system that can perform brain scans in 10 minutes and is being touted as the manufacturer’s “most cost-effective” 1.5 T MR scanner.
Siemens Healthineers' MAGNETOM Sempra 1.5T MR system
Is there a strong demand for 3T systems?
While speeding up scan time, new, high-capability, budget-conscious solutions like the MAGNETOM Sempra may be changing the way providers think about what they should be shopping for.
“If an imaging center is replacing an older system and they don’t have a need for a 70-centimeter bore because they’re looking for a low-cost solution, that’s exactly what Sempra was meant to address,” says Farischon. “They’re low total-cost-of-ownership systems from installation to operation.”
