A new high-performance MRI „ 7-Tesla-Connectome“ allows for even deeper insights into brain structures.
Medical Diagnostics
Workers unfasten the chains from the magnetic resonance imaging machine that the crane had previously lifted into place. According to data from the Otto von Gerike University Hospital, this will be the most powerful MRI machine in Europe. In the future, the “7-Tesla-Connectome” can be used for visualizing and measuring brain functions and structures. Another such device is currently planned to be installed only in Berkeley, California. /picture alliance, Klaus-Ditmar Gabbert Magdeburg – Scientists from Magdeburg will be able to delve even deeper into brain structures in the future. To achieve this, Magdeburg University today received a new and particularly powerful magnetic resonance imaging machine (MRI).
According to the university, the “7-Tesla-Connectome” is the most powerful large-scale device of its kind in Europe, capable of displaying and measuring particularly precise brain functions and structures.
“This means that we can detect the smallest changes in the brain even at the earliest stages of disease, to enhance research into treatment methods, for example, dementia in Alzheimer’s disease,” explained neurobiologist Emra Düz, director of the Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research at Magdeburg University.
According to the university’s data, this makes it the second location in the world to conduct MRI of this level. Another device is located at the University of California, Berkeley, USA.
Today, the main component, a cylindrical magnet almost three meters long and slightly less than three meters in diameter, was delivered with the help of a crane.
Over the past few months, the housing for the device has been constructed in the medical campus.
According to data, the total cost is 15 million euros and was financed by the European Regional Development Fund. The Magdeburg University Clinic introduced the previous model into operation as early as 2004.