- 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.
- 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.
- Quicker processing: SPEEDER parallel processing supports faster scanning techniques with high-quality images.
- 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.