Attention Claustrophobic Patients

If you have a brain MRI in an Open Magnet your head needs to be placed inside a head coil, just as it does on all other scanners. The difference is that the resolution at 3 Tesla is so high, diagnostic scans are possible in less than 20% of the time required in an Open scanner. In an Open scanner you must hold still for nearly 5 times longer. On occasion we have successfully performed diagnostic brain scans without a head coil as well (on an urgent basis). That would not be possible at the lower field strength employed by Open MRI facilities.

If you are prone to motion, we can scan you with a special technique called BLADE which corrects for head movement. Open Scanners do not offer this feature and therefore can not allow significant motion.

Why is this true? It all comes down to the strength of the magnet. An open scanner operates at 0.35 to 0.6 Tesla (Teslas are a unit of magnetism). A 3 Tesla magnet is at least 5 times more powerful. For the same image resolution, the scan time is 80% less. If it takes 32 minutes to complete an MRI in an open scanner, even in one of the 0.6 Tesla Stand Up Open MRI scanners, a scan on a 3 Tesla magnet can produce similar results in 4 minutes.

If you are claustrophobic, our staff will be with you in the scan room to comfort you and talk to you the whole time. One recent client posted a comment about this aspect that we are very proud of (click here to read it.)

How small is the space?  Technically it is 70 cm across which is a little more than two feet.  Your head does not always need to be inside the unit, but it often does.  Here is a picture of Dr. Hussman in front of our actual MRI machine to give you an idea of the size of it.

Finally, we also pipe in music from a premium internet radio service which offers any type of music in the world to listen to. From Rap to Rock, from Classical to Country, we instantly find your choice. Bring your CD or MP3 player or we can log in to your Pandora media stream! If there is anything else we can do, you need only ask.

If you are ready to schedule an appointment or would like to know more about our services, please contact us today! Thank you for visiting and we wish you the best for your health.