Ever have an MRI? The experience is intense, claustrophobic, and not too mention, its EXPENSIVE!
The FDA has cleared the world’s first portable MRI system, designed to be wheeled to a hospital bedside for scanning a patient’s head and brain.
A company called Hyperfine Research are behind it, and it's for people age two and older, the point-of-care imaging system weighs about one-tenth that of a conventional, fixed MRI system. About three feet wide and five feet tall, the device fits in an elevator and runs off an everyday power outlet to create both clinical contrast images and 3D renders.
The FDA approved the system following a number of positive clinical results which will be presented this week at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2020 in Los Angeles, a world premier meeting for researchers and clinicians dedicated to the science of stroke and brain health.
According to the preliminary research, 85 stroke patients (46% women, age 18-96, 46% ischemic stroke, 34% intracerebral hemorrhage, 20% subarachnoid hemorrhage) received bedside, low-field MRI within seven days of symptom onset. The exam time averaged about 30 minutes, and most patients were able to complete the entire exam. However, five patients could not fit into the 30-centimeter opening of the MRI machine, and six patients experienced claustrophobia, factors which halted their test.
READ MORE HERE from Good News Network.
Now that it's portable, and more affordable, more people will get the care that they need!
(photo credit: Getty Images)