Tesla Wars

By Robert Junk, AIA, AHRA & Tobias Gilk

Oh how the ‘Slice Wars’ are now sooo last year. CT is played out.

Welcome to the ‘Tesla Wars,’ values for which are now threatening double-digits. Most recently, the University of Illinois at Chicago trumpeted their new 9.4 Tesla MRI for head scans, which has just cleared safety testing. Promoted as the “worlds most powerful MRI for decoding the human brain,” the UIC system may have a short claim to the title as a project sponsored by the French atomic energy commission and administered by Neurospin promises an 11.7 Tesla MRI!

As contemporary clinical and research sites wrestle with the adoption pains of popularly available 3.0 Tesla systems, these quantum leap technologies may be illuminating the path forward. But if contemporary MR systems can produce high-quality diagnostic images, why the rush to greater field strengths?

Clinical MR imaging depends largely on the magnetic susceptibility of hydrogen atoms. Since our bodies are made up mostly of bound water, there is ample hydrogen in virtually all locations in our bodies to produce viable anatomical images. But at higher field strengths, MR could use other atomic structures, most notably sodium, to unveil previously unseen levels of detail.

As appealing as the promise of new anatomical information is, as functional MR and MR spectroscopy have demonstrated, the value of MR is not limited to anatomical imaging. Many believe that the glimpses at functional and metabolic information MR currently provides are only the tip of massive quantities of knowledge yet to be gained about processes within our own bodies.

Even without throwing open new windows to metabolic functions, the signal-to-noise ratios of higher field strengths would allow for higher-quality imaging, or significantly reduced scan times. Imagine ultra-rapid pizzicato gradients for these systems producing clinical models in fractions of the time that current MR is capable of.

An argument against higher field strength systems is that they are more challenging (and expensive) to site and to maintain. Vendors are diligently working on making the current cutting edge systems easier to site. Siemens’ new 3.0 Tesla scanner promises a magnetic fringe field dimensions comparable to their 1.5’s. This and similar efforts from other vendors will further diminish the perceived ‘premium’ for siting higher strength systems.

While the University of Illinois’ and Neurospin’s advanced systems may seem to be closer to the realm of science fiction than that of clinical reality, these efforts probably provide us a glimpse into the near future of MRI just as the current clinical scanner have given us just a peek another layer deeper into the mysteries of our own bodies.

The New Year promises excitement and surprises for us all!

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