GE HealthCare (GEHC) has unveiled Signa Magnus, a head-only 3-tesla MR scanner aimed at supporting research in neuroscience.
GEHC is highlighting the system's HyperG gradient technology, which features 300 mT/m and 750 T/m/s and supports detection of fine image details, according to the vendor. The company is also pointing to the scanner's high B-value diffusion and short echo times.
Magnus is currently pending U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance. Many current GEHC 3-tesla systems will be upgradeable to Magnus when it becomes commercially available, according to the firm.
GE HealthCare’s Signa Magnus head-only MR scanner. Photo courtesy of GE HealthCare.
The investigational Magnus was installed in March at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The Brigham team will be collaborating with GEHC to conduct research on high-performance neuro MRI, GEHC said.
“With this system, we will be able to measure things that weren’t possible with conventional MRI,” said project Principal Investigator Carl-Fredrik Westin, PhD, founding director of the Laboratory of Mathematics in Imaging and director of the Neuroimaging Analysis Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital. “We can ask questions we couldn’t ask before.”
The vendor is also spotlighting Magnus at this week's annual meeting and exhibition of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) in Singapore.
