By: Dan Calabrese
Surgeons and radiologists at Spectrum Health are
able to develop diagnoses with vastly enhanced images thanks to
technology acquired in fall 2008 from MRIx Technologies – a company
owned by an Illinois-based researcher of magnetic resonance imaging.
The MRIx technology provides surgeons with precise information for
neurosurgery by brings together functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) with stereotactic image guidance studies. Using these images
during surgery helps guide physicians and avoids impact on vital
language, motor and cognitive centers in the brain.
Because of the MRIx system, it is now possible to generate very
precise image of brain activity using a non-invasive method.
Previously, the best surgeons and radiologists could do was to settle
for a theoretical location of function.
Steve Zomberg, Spectrum’s clinical applications coordinator for
Neuro MRI, says the new technology allows surgeons and radiologists to
do much more with the images the system produces.
“We had been developing the program, and were able to produce
somewhat functional maps off our scanner,” Zomberg said. “But this
system really kick-started our program.”
The MRIx system, developed by Dr. Keith Thulborn of the University
of Illinois Chicago, produces more functional image maps with more
robust activation. The new images interact at a high level with the
“stimulus packages” that occur during functional MRIs, such as when a
patient is asked to squeeze his or her hand while the system measures
the corresponding brain activity.
Source: Susan Krieger,
Spectrum HealthDeborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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