From the October 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


Narayan says Pianissimo provides a 90 percent acoustic noise reduction for the patient, and that there have been several instances where patients chose a Toshiba scanner just because of that reduction in sound.

In distinguishing Toshiba’s Pianissimo technology from other quiet modalities, such as GE’s Silent Scan and Siemens’ Quiet Suite, Narayan says, “Other manufacturers have noise reduction technology but it is not available on all scans, and is not a system based solution, so that is a key difference.” Narayan says those solutions only apply to a fraction of the scans being done and are not compatible with high-end neurological studies such as functional MR.


HCBN spoke to Richard Hausmann, president and CEO of MR global business at GE, who confirmed that while the Silent Scan cannot be used in every imaging procedure, he anticipates a time when it could be. He says one important distinction is that for certain procedures, the Silent Scan is totally silent, as opposed to 90 percent silent. “In brain studies where you want to image the brain in a complete resting state,” says Hausmann, “you don’t want to have any noise whatsoever.”

He also says that in addition to pediatrics, Silent Scan is useful in treating claustrophobic patients, whose anxiety in an MR bore can be compounded by the noise.

Siemens meanwhile, introduced its Quiet Suite in 2013, which is a series of applications that cover complete, quiet neuro and musculoskeletal MR examinations with a minimum 70 percent reduction in sound pressure and no compromise in image quality. The Quite Suite works in conjunction with the MAGNETOM Skyra 3T and MAGNETOM Aera 1.5T.

Dr. Arastoo Vossough is an adult and pediatric neuroradiologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He says the parallel transmit available with the MAGNETOM Prisma 3T, an even newer offering from Siemens, has had a big impact on fetal imaging because of its ability to view tiny anatomical structures and reduce artifacts.

“With fetal imaging you’re always very cautious about safety issues,” says Vossough. “[With parallel transmit] we see images better and, at least theoretically, the focal energy deposition is more uniform and you don’t get hot spots.”

Traditional brain scans can be particularly loud because not only is the patient’s head inside the bore, but small fields of view, which are typical of brain scans, push the gradient exceptionally hard. In a statement that almost echoes the IMRIS objective of bringing MR to the OR, Hausmann describes a new neonatal scanner from GE which aims to bring the diagnostic capabilities of MR to the ICU, instead of having to transport delicate and unhealthy newborns all the way across the hospital to the MR department.

October 2014 Magazine

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