(from the Xaminer, Newsletter of the Radiology Department at Penn - Summer 2008)
Our department has become the first in the Greater Philadelphia region to acquire a 7 Tesla whole-body Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system. Ravinder Reddy, Director of the Metabolic Magnetic Resonance Research and Computing Center (MMRRCC), who is leading Penn’s effort in high-field imaging, says that this will be a powerful addition for research. “We’ll now be able to detect disease in ways never before seen—such as Alzheimer’s, arthritis, and cancer—with the finest resolution possible and without the need for radioactive contrast dyes.”
In the 20 years that MRI has been used for clinical imaging and research, the magnetic field strength of clinical imagers has increased 20-fold from 0.15 Tesla initially to 3T currently, with each increase in field strength yielding new diagnostic capabilities. Initial results from a few laboratories suggest MRI at even higher fields holds great promise to provide insight into structure, function and physiology in humans not obtainable at lower fields. An ultra high-field magnet will further improve sensitivity, speed, and image resolution.
Dr. Reddy added, “This system will also pave the way to image other nuclei in the human body such as sodium (23Na), phosphorus (31P), oxygen (17O) and carbon (13C). With further technique development, imaging these nuclei may provide disease-specific molecular and functional information not seen on conventional MRIs.
A 20x30-ft hole 7.5 feet deep had to be prepared to hold the foot-thick plus steel shielding box under and around the machine. An 11x 14ft hole had to be cut in the street-level roof of the MMRRCC lab in the basement of Stellar-Chance to allow a crane and later the magnet to be lowered down. 2 cranes, over a million pounds of steel shielding, and a great deal of complex maneuvering later, the machine was delivered in the building as of March 8, 2008.
Want to guess how much money had to be secured for this project? About $10 million. Dr. Reddy was awarded an NIH High-End Instrumentation Grant of $2 million in 2006, and he credits Mitch Schnall and Nick Bryan with being instrumental in acquiring the remainder of the funding from the Radiology Department and the School of Medicine to make this project happen.
In addition to the MR room itself, there is a whole suite of rooms dedicated to the 7T, including waiting and changing areas, equipment areas, and a computer room. The magnet is so strong that anyone entering the area will need to be screened with a metal detector.

Radiology Department Chair Dr. Nick Bryan is seen viewing the 7T installation with Director of the MMRRCC, Drs. Ravinder Reddy and Ari Borthakur

View of the 7T being cooled/filled with numerous tanks of liquid helium and nitrogen. Then entire cooling process took ~2 weeks!

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