Crozer-Chester Medical Center has installed a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system that combines high-field quality diagnostic images with a larger bore, or opening, for obese and claustrophobic patients.

“This is going to increase our efficiency and patient convenience,” says Stefan Skalina, M.D., medical director of the MRI Center of Delaware County. “The patient-friendly design of this magnet will make it easier for large patients and those with claustrophobia to have a MRI examination which produces higher quality images. This will potentially reduce the need to repeat and interrupt exams.”

Currently, patients too large to fit inside the bore of a high-field MRI magnet have image studies done in open MRI systems with low-field magnets. This limits the diagnostic usefulness of the images obtained. The field strength of a magnet is measured in units of Tesla — the higher the number, the higher the field strength. The higher the field strength, the better the quality of images produced.

Claustrophobic patients present another challenge for MRI systems. They can be sedated, adding to their inconvenience and the time it takes to schedule and perform an exam.

The Siemens MRI installed at Crozer features a bore opening of nearly 2.3 feet in diameter and almost one foot of free space between a patient’s head and the magnet. The system also features the shortest 1.5 Tesla magnet available. Approximately four feet long, the magnet allows more than 60 percent of exams to be completed with the patient’s head outside the bore, helping to ease claustrophobia.