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General MRI Facilities

An MRI scanner at 221 Longwood

The MR Division has several facilities within the hospital campus:

1. The L1 level of the main hospital building;
2. The main “Pike”;
3. The Lee Bell Center for Breast Imaging;
4. The LMRC Building (Longwood Medical Research Center at 221 Longwood Avenue); and
5. The Carl J. and Ruth Shapiro Cardiovascular Center.

All MR systems are fully supported with inpatient and outpatient facilities, nursing and technologist staff. A full-time clinical PhD MR Physicist provides clinical MRI protocol development, and QA and implementation support. Imaging results are interpreted at electronic reading stations over a clinical PACS with interconnectivity with advanced Radiology and Hospital Information Systems.

More on the MR facilities, by location, follows:

BWH Lower Level

One 3T GE MRI, one 3T Siemens MRI, and one 1.5T GE MRI resides in this area for radiology research and clinical use. This area will be the site of liver/kidney cryotherapy and prostate biopsies until the AMIGO facility becomes available.

Lee Bell Center for Breast Imaging: One 3T Siemens MRI is located in this area, equipped with open breast coils with vacuum-assist biopsy targeting equipment. In early 2008, a breast system from Robin Medical with active tracking will be installed.

Ia. Screening Mammography Facilities: The Lee Bell Center for Breast Imaging is a 6,850 sq. ft. facility within the main building of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital that provides the hospital’s screening mammography. This area provides office and clinical space for the provision of mammography and other clinical/research services and contains a conference room with a white board in one of the radiology reading rooms.

Computer: The Center is equipped with a GE Centricity PACS (picture archiving communication software) system and has several PCs connected to the Hospital’s computer network that includes Internet access.

Equipment: The Center has 5 GE digital mammography units, 3 Philips ultrasound units, 1 Hologic stereotactic biopsy unit, 1 Siemens 3T MRI unit, and Hologic CAD (computer aided detection) software. This equipment allows for the provision of the following clinical services: screening and diagnostic digital mammography, breast ultrasound, magnetic resonance (MRI) of the breast, stereotactic percutaneous core biopsy, MRI-guided percutaneous core biopsy, ultrasound-guided percutaneous core biopsy, preoperative lesion localization prior to surgical biopsy, galactography (ductography), and cyst aspiration.

Hospital Main “Pike: Two 1.5T GE MRIs reside in this area for radiology research and clinical use. The systems are connected to the Ethernet, enabling transfer of images and raw data locally and over computer network systems. This center is the alternate area for breast biopsy for patients with contraindications for 3T MR imaging.

221 Longwood Advanced Imaging Center: The LMRC Advanced Imaging Center at 221 Longwood consists of offices for research staff, laboratories and two 3T GE MRI magnets (one long bore and one short bore) and one 1.5 T long bore GE MRI magnet for both clinical and research use. (In 2008, the 3T GE long bore MRI will be replaced by a Siemens 3T MRI system.) The 1.5T scanner is integrated with an MRI-compatible tracking system for probe and catheter tracking. One of the 3T scanners is equipped with a commercialized focused ultrasound system (FUS) system. The hospital also has its own in-house FUS system for animal experiments that can move among the magnets at the 221 Longwood Facility.

The Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center: This facility located in the Goldenson Building within the Harvard Medical School quad, with a URL at: http://www.neurodiscovery.harvard.edu/resources/mri.html), can be accessed by members of the Harvard medical community and affiliated hospitals. It houses a 4.7T Bruker Biospec Advanced multinuclear MRI system. The Bruker system comes with a choice of two sizes of shielded gradient sets, one large and one small set. The smaller 12 cm gradient insert delivers up to 25 G/cm, and is useful for studying rats and mice. Gradient switching times of 200 µs for both requested gradient sets enable the use of fast EPI techniques. The RF coils include receive-only surface coils for greater sensitivity over small volumes such as mice, while still providing homogeneous B1 excitation from the surrounding volume coil. Animal handling assemblies include an animal positioning table that attaches to the end of the magnet, with convenient mechanical manipulators to allow vertical and horizontal positioning within the bore. This table slides into the resonator and includes an animal holding assembly containing a stereotactic head holding device with ear and tooth supports, ECG leads, and an optical respiratory gating device. A Hewlett Packard network analyzer is available for tuning and matching coils. At this site, a radiofrequency coil laboratory is also available.

The Carl J. and Ruth Shapiro Cardiovascular Center: Opening in early 2008, this facility will have a Siemens 3T MRI for use within radiology research and clinical uses.