Growth with Body MRIExpand your Body MRI services

The clinical and financial impact of patient motion during MRI
How Siemens MRI technology helps you overcome it

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With our award-winning FREEZEit – featuring TWIST-VIBE and StarVIBE – you will be able to take body imaging to the next level by overcoming challenging motion in liver imaging. This will enable you to expand your MRI services in the field of body imaging.

Frost & Sullivan recognizes FREEZEit with the Product Leadership Award for Innovative Techniques in Abdominal Imaging.

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Dynamic liver exams can be challenging for patients, including children, the elderly, and the very sick, who cannot hold their breath for the required time or at all.

StarVIBE now delivers robust, free-breathing, and contrast-enhanced exams for these patients by intelligently resisting motion artifacts.

Body MRI Case with FREEZEit – Hepatoblastoma Follow-up exam with StarVIBE

Key benefits:

  • Reliable imaging for a growing patient population, otherwise excluded from MRI
  • Improved treatment due to more accurate results
  • More satisfying patient experience
  • Less time for preparation
  • No need for rescans

“Radial VIBE (StarVIBE) sequence is ideal for MR imaging of pediatric patients. It significantly improves overall image quality and is motion robust, allowing for optimal imaging in free-breathing sedated pediatric patients.“1,2
Sarah S. Milla, MD
Pediatric Radiologist
Atlanta, GA

Dynamic liver imaging remains a contrast-enhanced technique. Using a contrast agent makes it necessary to catch the right point of the arterial phase. If this point in time is missed, crucial arterial information within the liver remains unseen.

TWIST-VIBE offers high temporal and spatial resolution with full 4D coverage for multi-arterial imaging with 100% precise contrast timing.

Body MRI Case with FREEZEit – FNH/Adenoma Distinction with TWIST-VIBE

Key benefits:

  • Robust and fast liver imaging with full 4D coverage
  • Excellent images to plan surgical intervention
  • Reliable imaging from the very first shot
  • Time and cost savings
  • No need for rescans

“TWIST-VIBE revolutionizes the diagnostic possibilities for oncologic imaging. It allows for robust, high temporal and spatial resolution scans, improving lesion detection and characterization. Thus, the detection of otherwise almost invisible liver metastases as well as small HCC foci becomes feasible. This immediately impacts further treatment decisions for our patients.”1
Ulrike I. Attenberger, MD
University Medical Center Mannheim
Mannheim, Germany

 

LiverLab provides non-invasive fat and iron evaluation, and enables for trending and/or monitoring of patients suspicious of liver diseases, especially in early disease stages.

The iron and fat values of the liver are important indicators for a variety of serious illnesses. Early evaluation could be a decisive step to better monitor early stages of diffuse liver diseases such as steatosis and hemochromatosis.

LiverLab is robust and fast enough to be implemented in routine clinical imaging with only a few clicks.

 


Your benefits:

• Quantitative liver evaluation

• Robust, clinical, inline workflow, built into the Abdomen Dot Engine

• First Look Dixon:

  o Single breath-hold (in, out, water, fat)

  o Inline, whole liver segmentation

  o Inline liver volume calculation

  o Evaluation suggestion: if fat / iron is detected

 

Inline Parametric Map R2* from &ldquo;First Look&rdquo; Dixon<br />
Inline Parametric Map R2*
from “First Look” Dixon
  • Multi-Echo Dixon

     o Inline parametric maps of the whole liver
     - T2*, R2*
     - Fat and water fraction
     o Inline evaluation and reports
     - Color bar charts
     - Parameter values over the specified ROI
     - Parameter values and histograms of the whole liver

Inline Parametric Map Fat Fraction
Inline Parametric Map Fat Fraction
  • HISTO

     o Multi-echo single voxel spectroscopy
     o User control of voxel placement
     o Inline evaluation and reports
     - Color bar chart

     - Spectra and fitting curves for quality control
     - Fat fraction
     - R2 water
 

Inline color report from HISTO
Inline color report from HISTO

With the new CAIPIRINHA (Controlled Aliasing in Parallel Imaging Results in Higher Acceleration) technique, you can accelerate acquisition and significantly reduce 3D breath-holds—without affecting image resolution, coverage, or contrast.
CAIPIRINHA acquisition can be used with 3D TI VIBE or 3D Dixon technique—which provides four contrasts (in phase, opposed phase, fat, and water) in a single short breath-hold.

Sequence1

3D VIBE FS
3mm, 256 matrix, 72 slices

Sequence 2

3D VIBE FS CAIPIRINHA x 4
3mm, 288 matrix, 72 slices

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3D Dixon Water CAIPIRINHA x 4
3mm, 320 matrix, 64 slices

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3D Dixon FAT CAIPIRINHA x 4
3 mm, 320 matrix, 64 slices

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3D Dixon In Phase CAIPIRINHA x 4
3mm, 320 matrix, 64 slices

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3D Dixon Opposed Phase CAIPIRINHA x 4
3mm, 320 matrix, 64 slices

CAIPIRINHA software is included as standard with Siemens’ D13A software for MAGNETOM Aera, Skyra, Avanto and Verio. It is also available with D14 software for the MAGNETOM ESSENZA 1.5T system.


Decrease breath holds – increase workflow
Abdominal MRIs can be challenging—motion (voluntary and involuntary), breath-hold capacity of the patient, acquisition speed, and contrast timing can all impact body imaging. If you could improve your abdominal MRIs, you can yield significant benefits.
Improve your abdominal MRI service and you’ll be able to:

  • Increase patient compliance
  • Enhance patient satisfaction
  • Have consistency among technologists
  • Reduce repeat exams, increase throughput
  • Improve image quality and diagnostic confidence
  • Attract more referrals
  • Meet utilization goals

“With CAIPIRINHA, acquisition times shorter than 10 seconds could have been achieved, which is a tremendous advantage, especially for elderly patients, who are not able to suspend their breath sufficiently. […] CAIPIRINHA-accelerated T1w-VIBE imaging seems to be a very robust and reliable technique. At our institution, this technique is now the clinical standard for abdominal MR studies.”

Highly Accelerated T1-Weighted Abdominal Imaging Using 2-Dimensional Controlled Aliasing in Parallel
Imaging Results in Higher Acceleration.
Riffel P, Attenberger UI, et. al.
Investigative Radiology. Volume 48, Number 7, July 2013.
Abstract

Controlled Aliasing in Parallel Imaging Results in Higher Acceleration (CAIPIRINHA)
Download CAIPIRINHA Flash article

Liver fibrosis with its associated cirrhosis and hypertension is a highly prevalent disease in the U.S. and traditionally requires biopsy for diagnosis. MR Elastography (MRE) offers the possibility to evaluate relative liver stiffness noninvasively.

Wave Images
2D GRE MRE sequence Is run during application of mechanical waves by active / passive drivers. Wave images allow visualization of resulting shear waves as they travel through the tissue

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Inline Elastogram
Calculated from wave image provides data about relative tissue stiffness. Here red indicates higher stiffness in fibrotic liver.

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Elastogram with Confidence Mask1
Siemens unique. Provides criteria to determine if calculated sheer wave stiffness values for a specific voxel is reliable

Our MRE package includes the hardware and software features to incorporate this state-of-the-art diagnostic tool into your diagnostic MR abdominal service. With it, you receive:

  • Active driver
  • Passive driver
  • Body 18 coil (standard)
  • 2D gradient echo sequence with
  • Motion-Encoding Gradients
  • iPAT enabled for shortened breath-holds
  • Inline Elastogram
  • Confidence Mask1
  • Magnitude, Color Stiffness, Color Stiffness with Confidence Mask and Color Wave images ready to read
  • Ability to reading stiffness directly on the color elastogram1
  • Free window leveling of color elastograms1

Contrasts

A Portfolio of Motion-Reduction Technology – Eliminating breath holds all together
The abdominal MR exam also requires other contrasts – and MAGNETOM MR systems from Siemens offer a variety of standard techniques to get the diagnostic information you need from patients with limited breath-holding capability.

HASTE

HASTE
(Half-Fourier Acquisition with Single Shot Turbo Spin Echo)
Takes about one second per slice to produce T2-weighted images or thick slab cholangiography exams. iPAT compatible.

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2D PACE
(Prospective Acquisition CorrEction)
Detect and correct for respiratory motion with this in-line software-based motion correction, eliminates need to position belts or bellows on the patient.

 

Software-based motion correction

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3D SPACE + 2D PACE
Use 3D SPACE with 2D PACE for high-resolution, free breathing gall bladder, pancreatic duct, and biliary tree imaging. The patient is able to breathe at their own rate, increasing comfort and compliance.

 

Free breathing, high resolution cholangio;
No belts or bellows for technologists to position

Graphic-25new_B50-REVEAL

REVEAL
Echo planar imaging for body diffusion. iPAT compatible. Inline ADC maps give indication of mobility of water in the tissue.

 

Standard Body Diffusion.
B50, PAT2, 6mm, 192 matrix
0.03 sec per slice

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BLADE
In-plane motion correction with Turbo Spin Echo sequences for T1-weighted, T2-weighted, dark fluid, or STIR imaging. Can be combined with iPAT, Fat Sat and can be used with all coils throughout the body.

 

Free breathing; Crisp delineation of liver ducts.

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No BLADE
Blurring of liver ducts

Coils & Workflow

Standard tools and unique options - Push the efficiency envelope
Flexible Coil Design for Superior Images

The MAGNETOM family of MRI systems features Tim® 4G coils that can now a 60% increase in SNR over the original Tim coil design. These improvements become even more critical in abdominal MRI where technologists often use many signal-started techniques.

 

No matter who comes into the exam room, your technologists can adjust the coil to their unique patient:

Up to 40 channel combination with elements from multiple coils

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Tim 4G coils are thin, yet powerful, providing more room in the bore for larger patients.

Learn more about our unique coil technology

Increased Efficiency to Meet Utilization Challenges
The need for efficient and effective MRIs has never been greater, particularly while your MRI utilization is under scrutiny. The MAGNETOM family of systems includes a number of features to help you do just that.

Inline Processing
The syngo user interface provides many inline processing features—such as ADC map creation and Maximum Intensity Projections—that free the technologist to do other tasks.

Tim Planning Suite (option)
The Tim Planning Suite allows technologists to easily cover large FOVs, which is especially useful in multi-step scans (e.g., abdomen and pelvis). And set-n-go protocols may be launched to cover complex, multi-step scans with a single click.

Abdomen Dot Engine, TimCT Onco Dot Engine (option)
Dot Engines can significantly cut down on the number of parameter changes and the opportunity for inhomogeneous results. Automation is the key to productivity, and Dot can help automate your MR exams with consistently high results.

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