Cost of operating a nuclear magnetic resonance imaging system.

Abstract

Nuclear magnetic resonance is a new, exciting, and expensive method of medical imaging. Increasing clinical and public aware? ness of the technique is encouraging radiologists and others to consider the costs of installing and running nuclear magnetic resonance units. The intending purchaser is faced with a choice between the cheaper and easier to install imager, based around a low field strength resistive magnet, or the more expensive and difficult to shield superconducting system, with some improvement in resultant spatial resolution. In Britain, given the present economic constraints, the practical difficulty and expense of installing superconducting systems into existing hospital buildings, as well as the generally unproved advantage of operating at these higher magnetic field strengths, most nuclear magnetic resonance installa? tions have been based around resistive systems and this pattern is likely to remain in future. Superconducting systems will probably be limited to teaching centres with a special interest in research and perhaps certain specialist clinical disciplines. The first nuclear magnetic resonance imager in Aberdeen was built by and installed in the university department of biom?dical physics and bioengineering. In 1983 a second machine was built by the same department and installed in a purpose built extension to the nuclear medicine wing in the Royal Infirmary. The running costs of this machine are met by the Medical Research Council as part of a joint project with the Department of Health and Social Security into the clinical value of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging. Five clear areas of research interest have been defined: intracranial imaging (both neurological and psychiatric), head and neck tumours, liver disease, pancreatic disease, and gynaecological cancer. For the remainder of its time the scanner is used for routine clinical referrals. Some machine time is given back to the physicists for research and development.