Radiology Reading via Portable MRI Machines

In medical practice there are various situations when a much needed scan gets delayed for instance when a critical patient is not recommended to move due to several reasons, then scanning is delayed or in an ambulance where the patient needs immediate intervention but due to lack of proper investigation the treatment is delayed. 

The latest invention in MRI is an absolute solution for all such circumstances where the portable MRI machine can solve the problem. Also in poor and small places this technology can turn out to be a blessing. 

This new device was developed in a collaboration between Yale scientists and Hyperfine, a Guilford-based medical device company founded by Yale alumnus Jonathan Rothberg.

To find out its viability a study was carried out at a neuroscience intensive care unit which showed specific brain abnormalities in 29 of 30 ICU patients with symptoms of stroke and other neurological disorders.

The Yale team also analyzed 20 COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms, 8 of them showed neurological abnormalities with the device but the achievement here was even more since the patients were too sick to be moved for MRI but the bedside machine solved the purpose with great ease.

In a study at Yale New Haven Hospital showed that it can predict ischemic stroke, hemorrhagic stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, traumatic brain injury, and brain tumors in patients presenting with neurological symptoms.

Thus with deployment of such critical investigation from a specially designed area to the bedside can be a big breakthrough in the medical field especially while dealing with critical conditions, such as stroke where the prognosis is better if detected and attended early.

Portable MRI is expected to be much cheaper than the conventional ones with lesser radiation protection protocols as the size of the magnet used is very small unlike the conventional machines.

Hyperfine has already received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use of its prototype device and has requested permission to use a more advanced version of the device.