The Last Five Years Have Seen a Major Push for the Use of 3Tesla in Essay

The Last Five Years Have Seen a Major Push for the Use of 3Tesla in Clinical Settings - Essay Example Benefits of 3T over old system have been discussed in detail further in the essay. 3T has provision for excellent imaging results of human body structures such as brain, abdominal organs, all the bony parts and abnormal masses (cancer). In addition, some complicated procedures such as diffuse tensor imaging (DTI) and MRI spectroscopy can also be administered easily with 3T (Haines & Quaddy, 2010, pp1-3). There is a scope of using many RF coils array for faster image processing in 3T. Basic physics of MRI and nuclear spin Here is a glance at the basic physics of MRI and correlation with nuclear spin. Magnetic field is a force generated by the electric currents or magnets. This force attracts other metallic and magnetic objects towards the field. Nucleus of the atom has magnetic properties. All the nuclei provide chemical information together throughout the magnetic field. Atomic chief constituents are proton, electron and neutron. They start revolving in an angular momentum. This is c alled as nuclear spin. This spin is suggestive of the direction of movements in magnetic field (James, 1998, pp1-31; Machann, Schlemmer&Schick, 2008, pp63-70). When two atoms come together in pair, they do not demonstrate a spin. However, in some nuclei, there are uneven number of protons and neutrons. These types of nuclei will have intrinsic angular momentum. In other incidences, when the unpaired nuclei spins are put in the magnetic field the magnetic field of the nucleus and surrounding field react with each other. These reactions are explained with Larmour frequency equations (James, 1998, pp1-31; Machann et.al., 2008, pp63-70). These nuclei momentums align either parallel or anti parallel with the surrounding magnetic field based on the law of quantum physics. Hence, this creates energy difference among the spins that in turn allows transition in between the states. Nucleus consumes energy and goes into excitement phase and further resting or relaxation phase. This relaxation period is important for calculation, as it indicates that any system requires equal time to go into relaxing phase after equal time of exciting phase throughout the magnetization. Total sum of the energy from every step transition is equated along with signal spatial frequency domain and spin density. This signal from spatial frequency is expressed into density in real place for the formation of MRI image (James, 1998, pp1-31; Machann et.al., 2008, pp63-70). Following picture shows the sample of 3T scanner machine with large bore. Picture curtsey- (Haines & Quaddy, 2010, pp1-3) Advantages of going to higher field Higher field means better imaging in shorter time. Transformation of scanning machines from1.5T to 3T also has many positive aspects: 1) SNR (Signal to noise ratio) The major advantage of using 3T technology is to have increased SNR, i.e. signal to noise ratio. â€Å"The FDA limits SAR by anatomical site based on the potential effects of heating† (Stafford, pp 1-5). SNR is almost double in 3T imaging. Raised SNR would certainly improve the image quality far better than before. In addition to this, higher SNR reduces the image acquiring time that helps in many ways such as reduced image producing time helps decrease the incidences of artefacts, especially motion. Many times posture of the patient for imaging makes him/her uncomfortable. Hence, reduced image acquisition time is quite helpful. 2) Spectral