Siemens Healthcare announced yesterday that its new MR applications, Simultaneous Multi-Slice (SMS) and GOBrain, have been cleared by the FDA. The applications shorten brain MR exams, which is more important than ever now that the number of brain MR exams is expected to rise to 45 million worldwide this year.

“When it comes to patients, faster exams means happier patients and more compliant patients, meaning there is less motion,” David Carpenter, manager of emerging technologies at Siemens, told HCB News. “That less motion benefits the referring physician because an MR that is scanned quickly creates a better image in patient populations prone to motion.”

The SMS application uses a technique that acquires MR images simultaneously instead of sequentially and reduces 2-D acquisition times by as much as a factor of eight. Clinicians can reduce the length of diffusion tensor imaging brain MR exams by up to 68 percent.

For surgical cases, SMS can be used along with surgical applications to map the exam, which improves efficiency in the operating room. The application is ideal for pediatric and geriatric patients who often cannot withstand longer MR exams.

The GOBrain application can acquire image orientations and contrasts with a single push of a button in five minutes. Siemens’ high-channel density coils and its DotGO software also help to make the exam quicker.

Reimbursement for brain MR exams has plummeted 45 percent in the last few years, so clinicians are looking for opportunities to increase their throughput. Shorter scan times can help to reduce potentially costly rescans.

“Before GOBrain, the scan times were usually much longer, and by leveraging the sophistication of Siemens hardware and automation users are able to go faster,” said Carpenter.

The SMS application is available on Siemens' MAGNETOM Aera 1.5T, MAGNETOM Skyra 3T, and MAGNETOM Prisma and Prismafit 3T MR systems. The GOBrain application is available on the MAGNETOM Aera and MAGNETOM Skyra systems.