STAND-UP MRI

Washington Open MRI now has the world's only full-body MRI scanner that has the added capability of scanning patients in the upright (or standing) position, i.e. with the patient in fully weight-loaded posture.

This new Stand-Up Open MRI machine allows the patient to look directly out of the gap to watch a TV monitor located on the walls of the shielded room. Together with FONAR's remarkably quiet Whisper Gradients™, Washington Open MRI's Stand-Up Open-MRI is an unusually Patient-Friendly™ scanner.

The revolutionary scanner features the only MRI-compatible, motorized, multi-positional, patient positioning system, which has been engineered to be fully functional Inside the scanner's magnetic field. It can position the patient for the full range of conventional "lie-down" MRI scanning, or upright for weight-bearing studies. An elevator raises or lowers the patients to allow weight-bearing images to be made of any part of the body, from head to toe. The scanner room has an eight-foot ceiling and the ceiling and floor are partially recessed to accommodate the elevator's full range of travel. The full length of the spine can be imaged in the normal weight-bearing posture, even with the patient touching their toes for full flexion images of the lumbar spine. Unusual patient positions that are difficult or impossible on conventional "lie-down" MRI scanners are routine on Washington Open MRI's new Stand-Up Open MRI.

The patient positioning system is tilted back slightly (approximately five degrees) in order to stabilize the patient and avoid body motion during stand-up scanning. The precise position of the patient is read back through the computer user interface, enabling the scanner's software to automatically account for the orientation of the patient. Patients can be positioned facing the poles, which enables a large range of motion for scans of the shoulder. Scans can also be obtained with lateral flexion of the lumbar spine.This new Stand-Up Open MRI is based on FONAR's proven 0.6 Tesla technology, which means it delivers exceptional scanning speed and high-resolution imaging. Like other FONAR scanners, the new Stand-Up Open MRI features the patented Iron-Circuit™ magnet design, which makes possible generous patient gaps and minimal fringe fields. FONAR magnets also feature a transaxial magnetic field, were the direction of magnetic flux is perpendicular to the orientation of the patients body. The combination of the transaxial magnetic field and any of FONAR's array of high signal-to-noise solenoidal surface coils is one of the key reasons why the new Stand-Up Open MRI is second-to-none in image quality. Its full range of advanced software features and state-of-the-art pulse sequences provide the user with all the tools necessary to achieve diagnostic precision.

In Medicine...
Often an upright position is the only position in which the patient's symptoms occur. Certain cardiovascular and neurological disorders exhibit their symptoms primarily when the patient is upright. The same is true of the GI tract and the spine and joints, including hips, knees and ankles. Coupled with MRI's unparalleled ability to "see" soft tissues, Stand-Up Open MRI gives physicians a more global view of pathology and its impact on function. From the perspective of medicine, Stand-Up Open MRI provides a dramatic view of the body's interior. At long last, Washington Open MRI brings to the medical practice, for the first time, the newfound ability to see all the body's organs and tissues in their normal position of function - upright.