Danbury Hospital Installs High Definition MRI System

DANBURY — Danbury Hospital has acquired a new, state-of-the-art high definition magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, the Signa® EXCITE 3.0T HD system from GE Healthcare.

 This advanced MRI technology will provide doctors at the hospital with highly detailed pictures of anatomy and pathology to help them evaluate a wide range of patient conditions, including stroke, musculoskeletal, and heart disease. A 300-ton crane recently placed the 25,000-pound magnet through a hatch in the hospital’s roof. Testing is scheduled to begin in mid-July and full activation of the new MRI is expected in August.

With magnet strength of 3.0 Tesla, the new system being installed at Danbury Hospital is the most powerful MRI scanner available to patients today in routine clinical use.

“This system gives us the best of all worlds. It gives our physicians more information to diagnose disease while allowing us to reduce the length of the exam for our patients,” said Thorsten Krebs, MD, chairman, Department of Radiology at Danbury Hospital. “We can be more confident in the results while our patients can be more comfortable.”

“Now with our new high definition MRI system, Danbury Hospital is able to capture dramatic images of our patients, reminiscent of high-definition television. Our new system provides our physicians with outstanding image quality for a more confident diagnosis, and less likelihood of rescans, even in the most challenging circumstances,” said Bradford Bottger, MD, medical director, MRI and an attending radiologist at the hospital.

In the case of brain tumors, Javed Shahid, MD, chief of neurosurgery at Danbury Hospital, explained that 3T MRI better distinguishes the tumor from surrounding normal brain, so that certain functional areas of the brain are preserved when a tumor is surgically removed.

“With 3T MRI technology, we can do functional imaging of the brain, defining critical areas of the brain prior to surgery. In the case of a patient with a brain tumor, surgery planning with the 3T MRI helps identify vital structures for movement, speech and other brain activity. The 3T MRI also offers tremendous views of the spinal cord, revealing subtle changes not visible on routine MRI studies. We gain a much cleaner, clearer view of the nervous system — whether it be for a brain tumor or vascular malformations — to improve surgical outcomes,” Dr Shahid said.

Newtown resident John Murphy, MD, a board certified neurologist with Associated Neurologists of Danbury and chairman of the Danbury Hospital Board of Directors, agreed that the 3T MRI offers the community a wonderful advantage for treating disorders of the nervous system.

“We can get a much better look at the brain with this higher level of discrimination. 3T MRI technology is more sensitive to subtle tissue abnormalities, so it’s particularly helpful for stroke victims. We can see changes in blood flow in areas of the brain that are becoming injured much earlier in the course of a stroke, giving doctors greater insight into how to treat patients in those first critical hours after a stroke,” Dr Murphy said.

“The technology also is important in the management of patients with epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease. While many patients with epilepsy currently have no known cause for their seizures, 3T can detect subtle abnormalities in the brain to identify problem areas and help us treat them. For Parkinson’s disease, 3T MRI identifies abnormalities in the region of the brain responsible for the disease, and can therefore assist doctors in making a more accurate clinical diagnosis,” he added.

MRI uses radio waves and a strong magnetic field rather than X-rays to provide remarkably clear and detailed pictures of internal organs and tissues to diagnose disease.

Danbury Hospital’s system also features GE’s leading edge EXCITE data management platform. This breakthrough enables the hospital to offer more sophisticated MR exams, such as functional imaging and spectroscopy. “Our new high-definition MR scanner is built precisely to handle the types of studies that are becoming increasingly important in the diagnosis of disease,” said Dr Bottger. “It’s one more way we are fulfilling our commitment to keeping patients at the leading edge of health care.

“With our new HDMR system, our physicians are able to offer the most comprehensive breadth of MR procedures available in western Connecticut and nearby New York State, providing optimal diagnostic capabilities for the assessment of the brain, spine, prostate, abdomen and pelvis, as well as perform orthopedic procedures on the elbow, wrist, hip and ankle,” said Dr Bottger. MR uses computers and magnetic fields, rather than X-rays, to capture images of the human body.

“GE’s high field magnet produces images of amazing clarity and detail. It’s what attracted us to the system.” said Patricia O’Connor, senior vice president/operations.

 “We know that we’ll get superior images even in the most difficult cases, and that means better patient care for our patients,” Dr Krebs said.