The MRI scanner that could improve diagnosis

A 7 Tesla magnet which is at the heart of a new Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system will vastly increase people's access to high resolution body scanning, say its developers.

Siemens Magnet Technology (SMT), an Oxfordshire-based subsidiary of Siemens Healthcare UK, says its Magnetom Terra scanner could potentially provide earlier diagnoses for neurological conditions including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Multiple Sclerosis.

"As we grow the number of users then the actual research work on these diseases, debilitating disease, will bear fruit in terms of drug development, in terms of understanding the mechanisms of these diseases," the company's Chief Technology Officer Simon Calvert told Reuters.

It could also assist in drug development for early stage diseases, says Siemens.

The Magnetom Terra has more than double the field strength of most MRI scanners, enabling much higher resolution images.

Siemens Healthcare will be seeking approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration within the next year.

MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields and radio waves to produce detailed images from inside the body.

The Siemens ultra-high magnetic field (UHF) 7 Tesla system allows researchers to identify lesions and bleeds more easily, says Siemens, potentially enabling unprecedented insights into hard-to-diagnose conditions.

In the John Radliffe Hospital in Oxford experts are trialling the scanner. Professor of Neuro Imaging Peter Jezzard says sharper scans will help surgeons treating Parkinson's sufferers with electrodes in the brain.

"It's quite hard to see the very tiny nuclei that you need to implant these electrodes in," he told Reuters. "So using something like 7 Tesla imaging you can do very high resolution imaging, you can get the contrast that you need in order to identify the particular sub-parts of the nuclei that you need to implant these electrodes in, so that will be an example where 7 Tesla could really help."

SMT is one of three finalists for the prestigious 2016 MacRobert Award, conducted by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

A gold medal and £50,000 (72,000 USD) cash prize will be announced on June 23 at an Academy Awards Dinner, in front of top engineers and business leaders from British engineering companies. — Reuters