French-led team unveils 11.7 tesla MRI scans of human brain

A research group based in Saclay, near Paris, has taken the wraps off what it claims are the world's first MRI scans of the human brain in vivo taken at a field strength of 11.7 tesla. President Emmanuel Macron has congratulated the researchers on social media. "The first images surpassed our expectations, giving after just four minutes, mind-blowing brain images without any artifacts, with superb tissue contrast and resolution, which represents a volume equivalent to a few thousand neurons," Denis Le Bihan, PhD, founding director of the NeuroSpin research facility and founder of Iseult Project of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), told AuntMinnieEurope.com on April 3. "Such images would require hours to obtain with conventional MRI systems." Axial view of the human brain at the same resolution (0.2 mm in-plane resolution and 1 mm slice thickness), with an identical acquisition time of around four minutes but at different magnetic field strengths. At 3 tesla and at 7 tesla (only three such machines in France and around 100 worldwide), the precision and sharpness are lower. At 3 tesla, a "grainy" cloud prevents the anatomical structures of the brain from being clearly delineated. At 7 tesla, when zooming, the level of detail at this resolution is reduced. At 11.7 tesla, the scan provides more signals and greater contrasts between biological tissues, which allows more detailed exploration of the brain. All images courtesy of CEA. The images w...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - Category: Radiology Authors: Tags: MRI Source Type: news