CLEARER MRI
Every photographer knows it's difficult to take a clear picture if your subject won't sit still. For doctors, clear images are not only essential tools for diagnosing patients. But critical road maps that guide them through surgery. How a new invention is helping doctors get the clearest images possible.
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Charles Cederholm is a prisoner in his own body. Parkinson's disease has left him with everything from tremors to paralysis.
Charles Cederholm
Has parkinson's
"I have problems trying to move, I have problems eating, problems trying to get dressed. I have a lot of pain that goes along with it."
Now, Charles and his wife have hope in the form of a brain surgery.
But first doctors must take an MRI scan of his brain.
Standard MRI' s don't work for everyone. Parkinson's patients like charles often can't lie still enough for the machine to do its job.
Carol Johnston
MRI Technologist
Barrow Neurological Institute
St. Joseph's Medical Center
Phoenix, AZ
"When we're dealing with critical patients or trauma patients,
motion is always a concern."
Motion can cause blurred MRI's. For Charles, blurred images could keep him from the surgery he needs. Now, there's something new called the PROPELLER MRI. It allows doctors to track the movement of the patient during the scan and reduce it in the image.
Jim Pipe
Scientist
Barrow Neurological Institute
St. Joseph's Medical Center
Phoenix, AZ
"This technology you can move your head maybe this amount (demonstrates) so that we can see that after scanning and correct for that."
The new technology can help Alzheimer's patients and fidgety children. It can also help doctors get very detailed scans of stroke patients in less time, so patients avoid more damage. Thanks in part to this technology, Charles feels good enough about his future to share a joke before his surgery.
PROPELLER MRI's are now being used at several hundred hospitals around the world. Despite the sophistication of this new equipment, PROPELLER scans cost the same as traditional MRI's. In fact, they can actually save you money because patients don't have to go back for as many MRI re-takes.
BACKGROUND: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans have been around since the 1980s. They give doctors a very detailed look at soft tissue, compared with X-rays, which show you only bones and some parts of the body.
PROPELLER: Now, researchers at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix have developed a new method that allows technicians to obtain clearer MRI scans with less sensitivity to patient motion. PROPELLER is an acronym for "Periodically Rotated Overlapping ParallEL Lines with Enhanced Reconstruction." This method acquires data in a unique way that allows one to track the motion of the patient during the MRI scan. The motion can then be reduced. Inventor Jim Pipe explains, "To make an MRI, you have to collect it in bits. With PROPELLER, we collect it differently, so we can keep track of the patients' motion over the whole scan, which you can't do in a typical MRI scan." Doctors say it increases in the accuracy of images down into the millimeters. Carol Johnston, a MRI Technologist, adds, "I think it is quite beneficial; as we employ more PROPELLER techniques, it's going to be even more beneficial when we are dealing with critical patients. For patients who are trauma patients, motion is always a concern, and to be able to eliminate some motion and to be able to get adequate image is of primary importance.
APPLICATIONS: There are two major applications of this method. The first is motion-insensitive imaging. For the first time, high-quality MRI scans can be collected on many segments of the population who cannot hold still (children, Parkinson's patients, etc.). This is leading the technology to a point where patient motion, which may be the biggest obstacle to good images, is no longer a factor. The second application for PROPELLER is stroke imaging. The technology used to detect and characterize strokes, called "Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI)," is extremely sensitive to even minute motion in a patient. Prior to PROPELLER, DWI images suffered in quality because the methods used to reduce this motion sensitivity also reduced image quality. With PROPELLER DWI, small strokes are much easier to detect, grade and follow during treatment.
FUTURE: While PROPELLER technology continues to be refined, GE has already incorporated the novel method into new medical equipment. Scientists at Barrow believe that PROPELLER technology will help drive the future of MRI.
Kimberly Lodge, Dir. Of Public Relations
St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center
350 W. Thomas Rd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85013
(602) 406-3000
www.stjosephs-phx.org
Kimberly.Lodge@chw.edu
Copyright © 2006 Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc.
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