Pre-development and development of an actively shielded superconducting magnet for MR tomography

MRI plays a very important role in the diagnosis of children, especially premature and newborns. Ultrasound imaging as a basic method can lead to unclear findings due to the lower impedance differences of the different tissues in premature infants. Therefore, MRI is used in particular to investigate damage to the central nervous system. Further clinical questions concern the diagnosis of cysts, cardiovascular diseases, malformations of the respiratory tract and metabolic diseases. These are currently being examined in standard MRI systems of the radiological department of the respective hospital. These patients often do not have special equipment (paediatric MRI coils, incubators suitable for MRI, special positioning units, etc.) for this group of patients. Instead, existing standard equipment is misused, for example by using knee coils for adults as head or whole-body coils for neonatal MRI imaging. Child movements lead to undesired image disturbances, which can significantly influence the diagnostic significance of MRI images. In order to avoid repeat measurements, the children are often anaesthetised or at least sedated.

The MRI examination of this group of patients is very useful, but also presents major challenges. For example, adverse events (AE) during MRI examinations of premature babies were reported , such as hemodynamic instabilities, respiratory instabilities and hypothermia. In addition, metallic objects (e. g. snaps on clothing), moisture (urine, cream) and insufficient cable routing (current loops) may cause burns during the MRI examination.

The central goal of the cooperation between Neoscan Solutions GmbH and the Otto-von-Guericke-University is therefore the development of a dedicated pediatric MRI system, which is adapted to the requirements of these patient groups. Within the EFRE-funded joint project "R&D Magnet for Neonatal MR-Tomography" the core component magnet is to be researched, designed and implemented as a research demonstrator.