The Mayo Clinic is the first medical facility to be able to offer patients the advanced technology diagnostic imaging using the MRI scanner with the strongest magnetic field available for clinical use in North America.
The MAGNETOM Terra is intended for patients who weight more than 66 pounds, and has over twice the magnetic field strength than 3 – Tesla scanners enabling superior imaging resolution. The magnetic fields are measured in Teslas and radio waves to create detailed images of tissues and organs, tesla strength determines the amount of anatomical detail that can be obtained in imaging.
It is anticipated that radiologists will use the new scanner for sophisticated neurological and musculoskeletal imaging for various improvements such as visualizing anatomic sources of seizures in previously undiagnosed patients enabling possibility of surgical cure; improving anatomic detail and support a higher degree of confidence in noninvasive diagnosis when imaging cartilage and other tissues; achieve higher resolution imaging of the brain to visualize small lesions in patients who present trauma related microhemorrhages or M.S lesions that may not have been previously detected at lower field strengths.
The MAGNETOM Terra is an addition to a long line of imaging and image guided therapeutic innovations at the Mayo Clinic, which also had the first clinical X-ray CT scanner, as well as recently gaining the first FDA approval for a positron emission tomography imaging agent to identify recurrent prostate cancer.
