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  Home Page » Features » Health » MRI Scanner Gets 12 Million Overhaul

MRI scanner gets $1.2 million overhaul

New machine keeps patients from long trip

by Dale Rodebaugh
Herald Staff Writer A $1.2 million upgrade of the MRI scanner at Mercy Regional Medical Center allows radiologists to evaluate breast cancer, a service previously unavailable in Southwest Colorado. The lack of MRI access has forced patients to travel to Albuquerque or Denver for evaluation.

Mercy radiologist Dr. Jonathon DeLacey likens the MRI overhaul to stripping a jalopy to its chassis and rebuilding it to include a powerful new engine under the hood. One of the add-ons is a motion-corrector, which compensates during brain scans for movement by patients, who must remain immobile for several minutes during the procedure.

The refurbished machine - paid for by a Mercy Health Foundation fund drive - went into service in August in the first-floor, diagnostic-imaging center. The manufacturer did the conversion work.

The original MRI - a GE Signa 1.5 Tesla, 16-channel, high-definition scanner - was a fixture at old Mercy Medical Center on East Third Avenue. It was moved when the hospital transferred its operations to its current home in Grandview in June 2006. The most distinguishable feature of the 7-foot-high unit is the housing that encloses a giant magnet, which is the heart of the scanner. Patients, lying on a stretcher-on-rails, slide through the "bore" in the casing where a magnetic field creates images.

"The upgraded MRI is an asset to the community," DeLacey said while showing visitors the "reading room," where radiologists and other specialists study on computer screens the images generated by the scanner. "It was a step that had to be taken, and it was great that the community raised money for the project."

The "reading room" is down the hall and around the corner from the diagnostic-imaging room that houses the MRI scanner. Both rooms are part of the diagnostic imaging center. A separate 3,600-square-foot breast-care center - contained within the hospital but not yet finished and will house clinics and digital mammography equipment - is still to be completed.

MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, technology relies on a powerful magnetic field, instead of the X-ray radiation used in mammograms, to produce detailed images of tissue, organs and bones. The upgraded system is faster, produces images of higher resolution and can be used in the detection and diagnosis of diseases in organs not possible with the older, less sophisticated version.

But where the upgraded scanner really shines is in breast cancer detection, analysis and diagnosis. It is used when:

• A mammogram finds something suspicious and a follow-up ultrasound scan still leaves unanswered questions.
• "As an example, while a tumor is readily visible in fat on a mammogram, it can hide in a dense or fibrocystic breast - one with fiber," DeLacey said. "An MRI is more sensitive than mammography for cancer detection in a woman with dense breasts."
• Women with several close relatives (grandmother, mothers or sisters) who had or have breast cancer are screened yearly for the disease. Women with a strong family history of breast cancer often are in the high-risk category.
• Further evaluation of women with newly diagnosed breast cancer is required. The evaluation can determine the extent of the cancer or see if there is a second cancer site in the same breast or in the other breast.

Breast cancer screening by MRI doesn't replace annual mammography screening and is not recommended as a screening tool by women with average risk of breast cancer, DeLacey said.

The upgraded MRI has been used 50 times for breast imaging - and in one case detected breast cancer in a man.

Upgrading the MRI was funded through the Yes Ma'am drive the Mercy Health Foundation started in July 2007. Fundraisers and an estimated 10,000 donations from individuals, organizations and businesses, which ranged from $1 to $100,000, have brought in $2.3 million of the $3.4 million goal. In addition to upgrading the MRI, the foundation has spent $300,000 on a computerized slide-staining analyzer that makes results of breast-tissue sampling available the same day. The foundation also spent $36,000 on breast biopsy equipment.

The remainder of the money is earmarked for finishing the breast-care center. Work is expected to start next spring.

daler@durangoherald.com