A Discussion with Nancy Gillen, vice president of Magnetic Resonance, Siemens Medical Solutions.

Diagnostic imaging technologies such as magnetic resonance (MR) are vital to catching signs of disease early and high quality diagnosis for treatment planning. However, some patients are unable to take advantage of its life-saving capabilities. The procedures can be extremely claustrophobic and unable to accommodate overweight individuals, which account for 65 percent of American adults. Certainly, all patients deserve the same access to high quality MR technology, used for visualization and to assist the physician with the diagnosis of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and vascular disorders to name a few. Unfortunately, today’s open MR systems are simply not up to today’s standard in image quality and only marginally address issues related to patient size and discomfort.

Siemens is introducing an entirely new category of diagnostic imaging technology, called open bore MR, which provides patients equal access to high quality medical diagnosis and treatment. Nancy Gillen, vice president of MR at Siemens Medical Solutions, is responsible overall for development, marketing and sales of Siemens MR solutions in the United States. She took a moment to offer insight into how open MR is changing how people view and experience MR as a whole:

What is MR and how does it work?

Nancy Gillen: MR imaging uses radio and magnetic waves to produce images of the body’s internal structures, providing high quality pictures to evaluate injury, presence of disease, and the anatomy and function of the body. MR temporarily alters the body’s local magnetic field, making normal and abnormal tissues respond differently to this alteration so they can be imaged. The result is an image that displays the contrast between the tissues in a two- or three-dimensional picture at any angle without having to change the patient’s position. Today, MR imaging has greatly advanced to include systems that can be used to image the heart, brain, breasts and other organs, with endless options for improved diagnosis and patient care.

What are the differences between traditional open systems and the new open bore category?

Nancy Gillen: Traditional open MR scanners are based on a C-arm or a four-point scanner, using magnets on the ends of each point situated around the patient. The sides are open, but the magnets positioned around the patient are as confining as traditional MR scanners. Also, these open MR scanners are only available in low-field power and are currently unable to achieve the higher power that today’s medical community deems necessary. The new open bore MR category, defined by the MAGNETOM Espree, is based on the traditional MR bore design, but has a much larger donut-shaped opening to allow ease of access for pediatric, elderly and larger patients – 2.5 feet of space. The magnet design is a larger version of the traditional bore, capable of 1.5 Tesla magnet or high-field power, offering the high quality imaging only available in traditional, non-open MR scanners.

Is there a demand for open bore MR technology in the marketplace?

Nancy Gillen: There have been amazing advances and innovations of MR technology. We can visualize the smallest details, from brain activity while performing tasks to tertiary vessels, with significant impact on the ability of the physician to detect disease early. Despite the recent advancements, many people are still unwilling or incapable of taking advantage of MR’s medical benefits. Some of those reasons may include a patient’s fear of small, enclosed spaces or the limitations of MR’s traditionally small openings with larger individuals. Open bore MR not only virtually eliminates these hurdles plagued by traditional MR scanners, but also gives medical staff easy access to the patient.

Many of today’s advanced interventional medical procedures, including neurological, cardiac and orthopedic applications, require constant imaging to provide a road map for doctors to follow. Open bore MR gives staff easy access to the patient during these procedures, while increased magnet strength creates more signal, resulting in better image quality, sharper resolution, and shorter measurement time. Benefits such as these put both the patient and doctor at ease.

How is open bore MR specifically addressing patients’ needs?

Nancy Gillen: In the past, scanning options for larger people have been limited. While large patients are very accepting to the procedures, the open MR technology available could not offer the same quality imaging as traditional MR scanners because of its power limitations. Also, claustrophobic patients had a very hard time with the procedures due to the small openings. The new category of open bore MR solves those issues. A larger bore opening allows patients of virtually all sizes access to the same high quality imaging capabilities, while claustrophobic patients will no longer have the ceiling of the magnet next to their nose. In fact, the new open bore system offers 12 inches of space above the patient’s head. The increased power of the magnet offers 100 percent signal-to-noise ratio, needed for obtaining sharper images of larger individuals. Also, patients no longer have to endure extended time in the magnet. They can be scanned in a matter of minutes without having to be repositioned multiple times. All of these attributes provide a relaxed and patient-friendly experience.

Why has Siemens taken this new approach to open MR technology?

Nancy Gillen: We’ve listened to our customers, and we’re responding to what the market demands. The challenge has been that, while open MR has been focused on providing improved patient comfort, today’s open MR scanners lack the strength of the traditional MR system. The currently available open MR systems can’t offer the same high quality imaging or clinical capabilities that doctors use in routine practice. Doctors are left yearning for a technology that allows easy access to their patients, but provides high-field power. The new category of open bore MR, launched by the MAGNETOM Espree, solves that problem by offering a traditional 1.5 Tesla magnet with more than 2.5 feet of space for easy access, regardless of patient size. High-field MR allows improved imaging in scanning for advanced medical conditions, including vascular, neurological, cardiac and breast disorders. Superior imaging plus increased speed can also help to improve the facility’s bottom line, creating a total solution for large medical institutions and small independent diagnostic imaging centers alike.