7 Tesla Siemens MAGNETOM Terra human MRI scanner
Carle Foundation and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign launched a first-of-its-kind partnership in 2019. One result: The purchase of a Siemens MAGNETOM Terra 7 Tesla MRI scanner, and the creation of the Carle Illinois Advanced Imaging Center.
Beckman's Biomedical Imaging Center facilitates all campus research on the 7 Tesla MRI.
About the Siemens MAGNETOM Terra 7 Tesla MRI scanner
Carle and the University of Illinois both use the scanner's research capabilities with its dual-mode functionality, which enables users to switch between clinical and research tasks while storing clinical and research images on different databases.
“Working together, the two organizations conduct research at the frontiers of modern neuroscience — discovering new properties of the human brain,” said Tracey Wszalek, the director of the Beckman Biomedical Imaging Center and co-director of the Carle Illinois Advanced Imaging Center.
The Beckman Institute’s Biomedical Imaging Center conducts University of Illinois research using the scanner, which is located at Carle Foundation Hospital. It provides more than double the signal of the existing research scanners at BIC. Research is expected to advance imaging science and improve clinical outcomes.
Siemens 7 Tesla MAGNETOM Terra Human MR Imager/Spectrometer
This system has a 60 cm bore and is multi-nuclear-capable. The system has XR gradients capable of gradient strengths of up to 80 mT/m on all axes at a slew rate of 200 T/m/s. Available coils include a 1-channel Tx/32-channel Rx Nova Medical head coil (clinically approved), a 1-channel Tx/28-channel Rx QED knee coil (clinically approved), 8-channel Tx/32-channel Rx Nova Medical head coil, and a 1-channel Tx/1-channel Rx loop coil. A physiological monitoring system allows recording of ECG, pulse, and respiration signals and appropriate gating of image acquisition.
One day per week is scheduled for clinical use, with the remaining time reserved for research use. A research agreement with Siemens provides pulse sequence programming access to these systems.
The following ancillary equipment exists to support MRI studies on the 7 Tesla:
Stimulus presentation system
An LCD monitor and host computer with EPrime, Psychophysics Toolbox, Presentation, and other software for presenting timed stimuli and recording responses.
PST Celeritas Stimulus response system
A fiber optic, MRI-compatible stimulus response system for recording subject button presses in the MRI scanner.
Resoundant mechanical actuating device
Used for magnetic resonance elastography experiments.
Avotec Silent Scan
An MRI compatible headphone system to enable the subjects in the scanner to hear movies during scanning.
7 Tesla scanner contacts
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