When a patient is about to undergo an MRI scan, their primary concerns are accuracy and comfort. CAMC’s newest MRI scanner, the Philips Ingenia 3T, allows for shorter scan times and has a wider opening for a more comfortable scanning experience. It is also the first digital broadband MRI, which contributes to an improvement in image quality.
“The 3T MRI is extremely efficient,” said Christine Oskin, corporate director of medical imaging at CAMC. “It has shorter scan times, so it maximizes the patient’s comfort without compromising the quality of the image. The reliability of high-field MRI allows our board-certified radiologists to differentiate between benign and potentially dangerous medical conditions with confidence.”
The scanner can accommodate patients of varying size, age and physical condition. Many scans can be performed with the patient’s head entirely out of the opening, which alleviates the feeling of claustrophobia that many people associate with getting an MRI scan.
Routine scans of the brain, spine, knee, ankle and liver can be performed in less than 8 minutes with 3T MRI. More complex scans may take 20 to 40 minutes, but excellent image quality is maintained in all scans because of the digital broadband capability. The scanner digitizes the signal directly in the coil, substantially improving the signal-to-noise ratio. A higher signal-to-noise ratio results in a clearer image. The Ingenia 3T also features patient-adaptive scanning, which improves image contrast, uniformity, consistency and speed.
“The new MRI brings with it important tools to help physicians improve the accuracy of diagnoses and treatments of broad categories of diseases, including stroke, brain tumors, epilepsy, musculoskeletal and heart disease,” Oskin said.
The Ingenia was also recently rated number one in an annual MRI report by the health care research firm KLAS.
For more information about medical imaging at CAMC, visit camc.org/imaging.
