Body MRIExpand your Body MRI services

MRI scan of abdomen and thorax

Body imaging is one of the fastest growing applications of MRI and, for example, recommended by guidelines as the imaging test of choice for abdominal exams.1 Challenges such as patients with limited breath-hold capability, general exam complexity, or usability of advanced applications like whole-body imaging have not been able to provide reproducibility or to accommodate all patients in the past.. Find out how innovative technologies help overcome these challenges in clinical routine imaging – with Compressed Sensing GRASP-VIBE2, the Whole-Body Dot Engine2, LiverLab and further applications.

Highlights

Siemens - MRI - Body MRI - Compressed Sensing GRASP-VIBE

Growth with Body MRI – enabled by Compressed Sensing GRASP-VIBE

Many children3, the elderly, or very sick patients may not be able to hold their breath long enough for an abdominal scan with dynamic contrast enhancement. This can either lead to compromised image quality or exclusion of a large part of the population from MRI exams – even though it is the gold standard in liver imaging. This challenge will be overcome with the introduction of Compressed Sensing GRASP-VIBE.


Courtesy of NYU, Lagone Medical Center, New York, USA

With our disruptive technology, Compressed Sensing GRASP-VIBE you can expand the patient population eligible for abdominal MRI. Patients with limited breath-hold capability or who are unable to follow breathing commands, e.g., patients with dementia, hearing impairment, children3 or multi morbid patients, can now undergo high-resolution dynamic abdominal imaging under free-breathing with one continuous, push-button exam.

Your benefits:

  • Perform push-button, free-breathing liver dynamics
  • Overcome timing challenges in dynamic imaging and respiratory artifacts
  • Expand the patient population eligible for abdominal MRI

TWIST-VIBE showing different perfusion phases

One of the main challenges when using contrast agent is catching the right point of the arterial phase, which differs from patient to patient. If this point in time is missed, crucial information may go undetected. Our solution is TWIST-VIBE: it offers high temporal and spatial resolution for multi-arterial imaging.

Your benefits:

  • Robust and fast imaging with full 4D coverage
  • Excellent images to plan surgical interventions
  • Reliable images and greater detail for every exam
  • Time and cost savings
  • No need for rescans

Free-breathing StarVIBE compared to conventional MR imaging
Free-breathing StarVIBE compared to conventional MR imaging

Involuntary motion – be that breathing, swallowing or bowel peristalsis – can lead to severe artifacts, compromising diagnosis. StarVIBE is a 3D T1-weighted gradient-echo sequence that efficiently encounters involuntary motion in the body and is the method of choice in every region where involuntary motion (lung, pelvis, orbits, head & neck, bowel) might compromise image quality.

Your benefits:

  • Patients can breathe freely throughout the scan
  • Reliable imaging of patients otherwise excluded from MRI
  • Free-breathing T1-weighted 3D measurements with very high spatial Resolution
  • StarVIBE effectively compensates breathing, swallowing, bowel motion and other sources of motion artifacts
  • Reduced need for rescans due to substantially reduced motion artifact 

Applications

Changing the scope of Body MRI

With demographic changes and the continued increase in demand for abdominal MRI comes the need to expand your services. We offer you the tools to do it. A wide range of revolutionary features and applications gives you high-quality, high-resolution images, even in body regions susceptible to artifacts. From reduced breath-hold times to invasive quantification of liver fat – we revolutionize what’s possible.


Siemens - MRI - Body MRI - Whole-Body Dot Engine

The Whole-Body Dot Engine allows easy, seamless planning of multiparametric multistation exams. Automatic recognition of individual anatomy and consistent settings for spatial resolution, image contrast, and breath-hold capacity according to the METRADS-P recommendations are directly integrated into the Whole-Body Dot Engine. Landmark-based automatic segmentation of the anatomical regions based on FastView scan AutoCoverage: scan range across the chest, abdomen and pelvis can be easily defined with a coverage slider.

Your benefits:

  • Easy to perform and consistent whole-body exams with Dot guidance
  • Distortion-free whole-body DWI with BioMatrix Tuners
  • Core whole-body exam in 25 minutes
  • Reliable information for physicians to use for early assessment and follow up of patients, e.g. with multiple myeloma

Siemens - MRI - LiverLab - Image - Evaluation result of liver fat and/or iron (HISTO)
Evaluation result of liver fat and/or iron (HISTO)

Evaluating the fat and iron content of the liver is an important step in monitoring early stages of liver diseases. As steatosis and hemochromatosis are becoming more prevalent in industrialized countries, the demand for liver evaluation is growing.
LiverLab enables non-invasive identification of patients with fatty liver and iron overload already at an early disease stage. This helps to minimize the need for biopsy.

Your benefits:

  • Non-invasive evaluation method for liver fat and iron content
  • Fast and reproducible results without post-processing
  • One robust and fast clinical workflow
  • Time and cost savings

MR Elastography
Elastogram calculated from wave image providing reliable data about tissue stiffness

Liver fibrosis is an excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix proteins including collagen that occurs in most types of chronic liver diseases. Advanced liver fibrosis results in cirrhosis, liver failure, and portal hypertension, where liver transplantation may be the only treatment option. Diagnosis traditionally requires liver biopsy and there is acknowledged need for accurate less invasive methods to detect and follow chronic liver disease. These challenges have led to increasing interest in MR Elastography as a clinical and research tool

 

Your benefits:

  • Helps to evaluate changes and therefore loss in functionality of the liver tissue
  • Additional MR tool set to evaluate liver diseases non-invasively
  • Different approach for improved treatment decisions, especially in liver fibrosis

 


Detection of prostate carcinoma with RESOLVE
Detection of prostate carcinoma with RESOLVE (Courtesy: National University Hospital, Singapore, Singapore)

RESOLVE is a diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) technique that reduces blurring and susceptibility to artifacts. It is largely free of distortions and delivers sharp images at higher spatial resolution. RESOLVE is especially attractive for the evaluation of smaller lesions in a wide range of examinations.

Your benefits:

  • High-quality, high-resolution DWI and DTI
  • Reduced susceptibility to blurring artifacts
  • Insensitivity to motion-induced phase errors
  • Reduced SAR in comparison to TSE-based methods
  • iPAT compatible for faster scans and further reduction of distortions

Liver imaging with CAIPIRINHA
Liver imaging with CAIPIRINHA

CAIPIRINHA (Controlled Aliasing in Parallel Imaging Results in Higher Acceleration) is a data acquisition technique that reduces breath-hold times and still delivers high-resolution 3D data. It can be combined with 3D T1 VIBE or 3D Dixon and offers four contrasts (in phase, opposed phase, fat, and water) in a single breath-hold. Liver imaging can be performed in 10 seconds.

Your benefits:

  • Higher SNR possible
  • Higher PAT factors are enabled with excellent image quality
  • Used pattern distribute k-space points more uniformly
  • Reduced patient stress by reducing breath-holds

Abdomen Dot Engine
Abdomen Dot Engine

The Abdomen Dot Engine is a customized solution with optimized bolus timing for dynamic abdomen scans. Various features ensure consistent contrast timing and, consequently, consistent image quality for multiparametric imaging. In addition, monitoring of exam progress and synchronized timing makes scanning more comfortable and confident.

Your benefits:

  • Perform hassle-free breath-hold and contrast imaging
  • Less repeat examinations through 28% better timing accuracy
  • Increased timing accuracy delivers reproducible results
  • Perform motion free imaging
  • Use offered MRCP and Diffusion decision points

syngo.MR OncoTrend

syngo.MR OncoTrend also allows the assessment and intuitive visualization of changes in functional imaging parameters, i.e. diffusion characteristics (ADC values) under therapy. With an intuitive color-coding of different ADC value ranges and overlay of post-processing results in the original images, multiple timepoints can be compared and changes can easily be assessed.

Cases

See what’s possible in Body MRI

Whether it’s about imaging patients who cannot hold their breath or about finding the right time point of the arterial phase after contrast injection, FREEZEit takes Body MRI to the next level. Check out these cases to experience the convincing results in a clinical and research set-up.


Siemens - MRI - Image - Clinical Case - Cholangiocarcinoma – metastatic disease

In the case of a 63-year-old male patient whose CT scan showed lesions in the left inferior lobe of the liver, TWIST-VIBE helped to see if there is a pancreatic carcinoma or any hepatic metastases in addition to the suspected cholangiocarcinoma. The results led to a sound therapeutic decision by continuing chemotherapy instead of going for surgery and further liver resection.

FNH/Adenoma distinction with TWIST-VIBE

In the case of a 54-year-old female patient who showed intrahepatic masses during a sonograph examination, the TWIST-VIBE sequence helped to identify the lesions and distinguish between an Adenoma and FNHs (Focal nodular hyperplasia). Multiple arterial phases made it possible to see the best phase of lesion enhancement, to adequately characterize, and decide for a corresponding treatment.

Hepatoblastoma follow-up after post right Hepatectomy with StarVIBE

In the case of a 3-year-old hepatoblastoma patient, StarVIBE allowed a free-breathing and contrast-enhanced follow-up examination after partial liver resection.3 With its higher spatial resolution and excellent motion robustness, StarVIBE helped to exclude local recurrence. In addition, the absence of ionizing radiation when using MRI is an advantage for pediatric patients who often undergo further follow-up examinations throughout their lifetime.

Users

Customer experiences

Listen to and read what our Body MRI users have to say.4


Prof. Schneider about FREEZEit
Prof. Dr. Schneider and his team at Saarland University Medical Center are one of the first to use FREEZEit. Listen to their experiences and gain insights in how and when they use the new technology, as well as what kind of advantages it brings.


Advanced Imaging Techniques in Fast 3T Body MRI

Listen to the clinical talk from the MAGNETOM World Summit 2014 in Oxford, United Kingdom by
Dr. Stefan Schönberg
Mannheim University Medical Center
Mannheim, Germany

Fast Comprehensive Liver Imaging

Listen to the clinical talk from the MAGNETOM World Summit 2014 in Oxford, United Kingdom by
Dr. Mike Notohamiprodjo
LMU University Hospital Munich
Munich, Germany

Body MRI and Whole-Body Staging in Pediatric Patients3

Listen to the clinical talk from the MAGNETOM World Summit 2014 in Oxford, United Kingdom by
Prof. Dr. Günther Schneider
Saarland University Medical Center
Homburg/Saar, Germany

Fast liver MRI with advanced imaging techniques

Listen to the clinical talk from ECR 2014 in Vienna, Austria by
Dr. Mike Notohamiprodjo
LMU University Hospital Munich
Munich, Germany

Body MRI in pediatric patients3

Listen to the clinical talk from ECR 2014 in Vienna, Austria by
Prof. Dr. Günther Schneider
Saarland University Medical Center
Homburg/Saar, Germany

Body MRI in pediatric patients3

Listen to the clinical talk from ECR 2014 in Vienna, Austria by
Prof. Dr. Günther Schneider
Saarland University Medical Center
Homburg/Saar, Germany


Prof. Dr. Schneider about FREEZEit in Pediatric MRI, for example.2

Dr. Notohamiprodjo about new technologies in liver MRI.

Prof. Nikolaou about the improvements in abdominal imaging.

Dr. Ong about better therapeutic management in abdominal imaging.


Attenberger

"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."

Ulrike I. Attenberger, MD
University Medical Center Mannheim
Mannheim, Germany
 

Sarah S. Milla, MD

"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."3

Sarah S. Milla, MD
Pediatric Radiologist
Atlanta, GA, USA

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