From the October 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


The issue of coil density seems to hinge in large part on a manufacturer’s target audience. As Jones puts it, “If you’re trying to sell a reasonably priced system that’s going to do all of these anatomies that are so fundamental to MR imaging, like brain, spine, extremities, then 32-channels is enough.”

“The return on investment as you get higher channel counts becomes smaller and smaller.” Jones says if you are trying to push the envelope and break new ground in a research and academic capacity, then you’ve got to keep moving forward with increased channels. In terms of the average end user however, the majority of systems in use today, according to Jones, still feature less than 32 channels.


Toshiba is currently manufacturing 16-and 32-channel systems on both 1.5T and 3T platforms. Suresh Narayan, senior manager of Toshiba’s MR business unit, says Toshiba broadly identifies three market segments for MR; the economy segment, the core segment, and the high-end segment. Generally, their Titan 3T is suitable for high-end investors while the Titan 1.5T is a better fit for the majority of their customers.

HCBN spoke to Richard Hausmann, president and CEO of MR global business at GE, who offers an explanation to the question of channel density. “Physics will tell you that there is an advantage in behavior around 32 or 64 channels, but then additional benefit is getting smaller and smaller. But more importantly, what are the coils doing?” Hausmann says image quality is highly dependent on the design of the coils and the ways in which those coils interact with the patient’s anatomy.

“You can put a four element coil on an eight-channel system, you just won’t use them all,” says Jones at ScanMed, “You can also put a 16 element coil on an eight-channel system, then the coil design allows you to select which eight you want to use.” As a manufacturer of coils, Jones says there is a lot of latitude to put more elements in than are necessarily needed so that the technologist who uses them can pick and choose which channels to utilize.

Dr. Vossough, from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, says adult coils are often reimagined for use on pediatric patients. “Some coils that would have been used for an adult knee can be used for different areas of the baby.” The reason for this is, in part, because pediatric MR accessories have not historically represented a big market segment, but Vossough thinks that trend is changing.

Looking forward, Jones envisions a future where an in-channel array will be developed as a full body suit. Such a suit would be the only set of coils a physician would ever need. “The patient would wear it and you could pick channels for the entire body out of 256 or something like that,” says Jones. “I really think that’s where we’re headed.” Jones cites several reasons why such technology is not yet on the market and engineering capability is not among them. “We haven’t had the appropriate speed, or price of electronics, or physician sign-off to make it worthwhile,” says Jones, “Not to mention reimbursement.”

October 2014 Magazine

Read more stories from the October 2014 issue

More Industry Reports