Full-body Scanning
Medical Milestone
High-tech imaging methods such as magnetic resonance tomography can now deliver razor-sharp images of the whole body in one go.
"It was really relaxing," says Hannah Stockbauer after coming out of an MR tomograph. Her body was scanned as though it were made of glass (right). The computer colored her heart and arteries red, and her kidneys a yellow-green. Her liver and spleen are shown in dark green
Swimming champion Hannah Stockbauer is used to coming in first. She was therefore the ideal person to try out Siemens Avanto magnetic resonance (MR) tomograph. The device, which recently celebrated its market launch, uses revolutionary Total Imaging Matrix technology, or Tim for short. Tim delivers images with a resolution thats four times higher than conventional systems. Whats more, its scanning area is 205 cm longa new milestone in medical technology. As a result, the entire body can now be scanned at one time, without having to move the patient or change the coils. It takes just 12 minutes for the Avanto tomograph to take a full-body scanhalf as long as the fastest machines available previously.
Stockbauer, who studies Geography in Erlangen, Germany and is currently on placement at Siemens Real Estate, is impressed with the result of her scan. And lying inside the tomograph was much more pleasant than she expected. "It was my first ever scan, so I had an oppressive feeling at the start," she says. "But I got used to it quickly. In fact, I was even able to relax after a while," she said. Following her triumph at the 2003 World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, Stockbauer, who became the Sportswoman of the Year, is now aiming for gold at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
Basketball player Narcisse Ewodo (left and center) was also curious to see what "Tim" would reveal about his body. In the scanning processes, 76 individual coil elements can be freely combined with 32 receiving channels. The resulting resolution is four times higher than with previous systems
With the Avanto tomograph, full-body scans could soon become routine as a means of detecting diseases such as cancer and arterial sclerosis early on. Patients and doctors will also benefit from the new scanners razor-sharp images of organs and blood vessels.
Ulrike Zechbauer