The first made-in-Canada, head-only, functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner is expected to give a Winnipeg research centre a leading edge in MRI capabilities. The St. Boniface General Hospital Research Centre in Winnipeg will use the $3-million MRI scanner, which was custom-built by the National Research Council's Institute for Biodiagnostics in Winnipeg, at its new Centre on Aging. (Figure)
Its powerful magnet, at 3 T compared with the more standard 1.5 T, allows researchers and clinicians to obtain considerably more information about patients, explains Dr. Blake McClarty, professor and chair of the Department of Radiology at the University of Manitoba. "We can look at blood flow during brain activity and we can see when increased blood flow occurs during [specific] activities and in what portion of the brain." Its many uses include providing information on where brain activity occurs in poststroke patients or in patients with dementia.
"This MRI looks at how the brain functions rather than looking at the anatomy," explained Dr. Ian Smith, director general at the Institute for Biodiagnostics. "If a recovered stroke patient is paralysed on the right side, so activities on the left side of the body aren't happening, we can see how after about a year in [some] patients, the brain starts using its right side for these activities. We can see how the brain promotes recovery." This understanding could lead to the development of an artificial process to "recruit" brain activity.
Winnipeg's head-only MRI means that the research centre now has 3 MRI scanners. One is for conventional diagnostics and the other is a C-shaped, 0.2 T scanner manufactured by Siemens for an integrated system of robotic-guided neurosurgery. Developed by Mark Torchia, a research scientist at the centre, that system integrates MRI with laser technology and robotics.
This integrated system lets a surgeon "image" the patient, view the tumour, determine the best way to gain access to it and then program the computer to guide the device to the tumour.
With 3 MRI machines, the St. Boniface research centre is poised to advance its diverse research projects and move them closer to clinical applications and possible commercial opportunities.