World's most powerful MRI aces safety test

Chicago -- The world's most powerful medical magnetic resonance imaging machine has successfully passed its initial U.S. safety trials.

The 9.4 Tesla scanner at the University of Illinois-Chicago is designed to offer doctors a real-time view of biological processes in the human brain, ushering in an era in which brain imaging will be used to observe metabolic processes and customize healthcare.

The 9.4 Tesla magnet has a field strength more than three times that of current state-of-the-art MRI clinical units and is the first such device large enough to scan the head and visualize the human brain.

"Because the more powerful magnet allows us to visualize different types of molecules, we are seeing activity in the brain along a completely different dimension," said Dr. Keith Thulborn, director of the university's Center for Magnetic Resonance Research.

"This initial evaluation of safety is only the first step toward realizing metabolic imaging of the human brain," Thulborn said. "We are now moving towards patient studies of sodium imaging and towards safety testing for oxygen and phosphorus imaging in humans.

The safety study was reported in November issue of the Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International.