Litigation

More Powerful MRI Approved To View Brain Pathology

By Michael Kaplen

The power of MRI machines keeps increasing at amazing speed.  While most hospitals are still using Tesla 1.5 strength MRI machines, many have now switched over to the Tesla 3.O which enables physicians to see brain pathology including diffuse axonal injury previously missed.  However, much brain injury still is not capable of being seen on the Tesla 3.0 MRI leading to frustrating absence of objective proof of traumatic brain injury.  This is especially frustrating in court cases. While absensce of proof of brain injury does not mean that no brain injury occurred as it is now accepted by the medical community that brain injury can occur even in the absense of positive MRI or CT confirmation, none the less, the failure to be able to document the TBI using objective measures still causes problems in legal cases involving brain damage.

Now, however an MRI that is much stronger than any before has successfully completed safety trials at the University of Chicago.  This new MRI machine is rated at 9.4 Tesla and is capable of revealing the brain in a detail never before seen and which will allow the observer to view biological processes in the human brain.

The safety study was published in the November Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in an issue focused on MRI safety.

Researchers and physicians hope that the 9.4T will usher in a new era of brain imaging in which they will be able to observe metabolic processes and customize health care.

You can read more by clicking here.

Full post as published by Brain Injury News and Information on January 08, 2008 (boomark / email).