General interest press release
New Insights into the Brain with 9.4 Tesla MRT
Scientists are hoping that two new magnetic resonance tomographs from Siemens will enable them to make new advances in the understanding and treatment of cancer or brain diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. This summer, a scanner will be installed at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg with a magnetic field strength of 7 Tesla – a world record in cancer research. An even more powerful magnetic field strength of 9.4 Tesla – almost 200,000 times the strength of the earth's magnetic field – will be generated by a magnetic resonance tomograph set to become operational at the German Forschungszentrum Jülich in 2009. This will also be a world record. Unique: the system also contains a positron emission tomography scanner which provides detailed images of metabolic processes in the brain.
In the future researchers at Forschungszentrum Juelich (JuelichResearch Center) will be able to penetrate even deeper into thesecrets of the brain — thanks to state-of-the-art imaging fromSiemens. A large medical instrument that is unique worldwidewas put into operation on April 29 at the research center. Thisnew system allows detailed views of the interior of the humanskull and can pinpoint the locations of pathological tissue andstructural changes in the brain to within 100 micrometers. This ispossible with a magnetic resonance tomograph (MRT) with atremendous field strength of 9.4 tesla (almost 200,000 timesstronger than the earth's magnetic field) which will be combinedlater with a positron emission tomograph (PET).
The two constituent systems of this large-scale machine havedifferent advantages. With the extremely strong magnetic field ofthe MRT scanner, the resolution of the images is substantiallyincreased relative to a model with 1.5 tesla — the magnetic fieldstrengths usually used in hospitals.
The PET scanner, on the other hand, can make brain activitiesand metabolic processes visible, which allows inferences to bemade about tumor tissue. There are different kinds of PET examinations.Usually a patient gets injections of a very small dose ofweakly radioactive liquid, which accumulates in cells with anelevated metabolic rate, for example. Positrons are released atthese locations. Detectors record the radiation which resultswhen positrons encounter electrons, making it possible to identifytumor cells on the basis of their metabolism.
The Juelich researchers want to develop opportunities for diagnosisand therapy of brain diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's,which up to now could not be treated or prevented.Foremost, they are researching the structure and the mechanismsof the brain in general. Siemens in turn hopes that this cooperationwill make it possible to determine if there are new applicationsfor MRT and for the combination of MRT and PET.
Photo: http://www.siemens.com/photonews/pn200816e