Researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Göttingen, Germany, significantly reduced the time needed to capture an image of the functioning of human organs to 1/50 of a second. Thanks to this, for the first time live, e.g. eye and jaw movements can be filmed, as well as bending knees or a beating heart – reports the portal Science.
A process that took a few minutes in the 80s is now a matter of seconds. It was possible thanks to the FLASH (fast low angle shot) method, which is painless. This technique uses magnetic fields and radio waves. However, it has been too slow so far.
To improve the method, specialists used, inter alia, angular decoding of spatial information that makes the image invulnerable to movement. Elements of mathematics were also used to reduce the download time.
Scientists believe that this new method will help develop, inter alia, diagnosis of heart failure and coronary artery disease.
The disadvantage of the technique is that its application requires fast computers that can perform enormous computational efforts, said physicist at the Max Planck Institute, Martin Uecker.
For example, one minute of real-time heart function testing requires creating between 2 and 3. images, which takes up 2 gigabytes of computer capacity. Comprehensive calculations require the use of high-speed graphics processors designed for 3D visualization and computer games.
Our computer system currently takes 30 minutes to process one minute of film, says Uecker.
He assured that this time will be shortened if the MRI systems are equipped with computers that will introduce immediate calculation and live presentation of images during the scan. (PAP)