OV9

(because I have nothing to post about my boring car in Fleet Running Reports...)

Siemens Prisma 3.0

We underwent the XA60 upgrade late last year (new OS and upgrades to various componentry including the synthesizer).
MRI, as we all know, involves lining up hydrogen in a magnetic field, hitting it with a radiofrequency pulse, and measuring the reflected signal to build an image. My research looks at other elements that behave similarly or can be induced to do so. We have aftermarket receive coils for phosphorous (from Pulseteq*) and for polarised Xenon (from Rapid**).

Since the refit, these coils have been producing nothing but noise - not that they have been producing nosiy signals, they have only been producing noise. This is problematic and vexing, especially as they worked just fine before the upgrade.

I had a significant back and forth with Pulseteq in case there was a mismatch in the code of the coil files [drivers]. Technically speaking, these are protected bits of the scanner as they stop you from putting too much power into a patient and microwaving them, or overloading the coil with voltage and setting it on fire, so you're not really meant to freely dick around with them. But I had a go anyway, and so did the guys at Pulseteq, and so did a nice German man called Helmut who works for Siemens in Germany. I wondered if it was a syntax issue activating un-used plugs and feeding noise into the MNO receive chain, or a failure of decoupling (switching off the recieve side when the transmit side is on). No luck unfortunately.

This induced Siemens themselves to come and visit, and discovered an awful lot of noise on the linkage from plug that our coils connect to on to synthesizer - 31Db (reference range 0 - 0.5). Changing plug reduced this a bit but did not fix it. So they are coming back another time to replace cabling from plug to synthesizer and possibly synthesizer itself. This makes more logical sense as something might have been disrupted or damaged when replacing the synth, and if the synth was buggered I would probably expect noise on the proton channel.

*A UK company in Chobham, incongrously operating from above a nail salon
**A German company who are far more professional but much less personable

Siemens Terra 7.0
Still undergoing refit to Terra X. We got the adapter to put the posterior array of the phosphorous coil in though, so we have that going for us.

Nice update! I look forward to others here contributing on their MRI Scanner Fleet Running Reports too.

I'm just waiting for whenever Apple add the hardware to the iPhone so that the camera can run an MRI scan, or you just plug a little piece of hardware into the USB-C port like you do with them thermal imaging cameras

Marv wrote: Tue Mar 03, 2026 9:26 pm Nice update! I look forward to others here contributing on their MRI Scanner Fleet Running Reports too.

I'm just waiting for whenever Apple add the hardware to the iPhone so that the camera can run an MRI scan, or you just plug a little piece of hardware into the USB-C port like you do with them thermal imaging cameras

It’s not completely beyond the pale - you could integrate near infrared spectroscopy, it works on similar principles just doesn’t need the magnets. What you would use it for… I know not right now but it is a nice way of measuring brain activity.

Why the fuck are animal MRI scans more expensive than human scans ?

Was the picture of the projectile butt plug real ?

Why is it always an electrician who cannot terminate properly.

Dave!

But, where is the emergency start video?

V8Granite wrote: Tue Mar 03, 2026 9:45 pm Why the fuck are animal MRI scans more expensive than human scans ?

Sedation?

And I’m not certain that Mr Newt works on furry friends too often?

Will: OK Nurse Ratched - who do we have this morning?

Nurse: first up is Mr Tomklinsone - 56 year old male.
Mrs Runcornose - 47 year old female
Bonzo - 4 year old male.
Etc

Because vets are capitalistic endeavours

V8Granite wrote: Tue Mar 03, 2026 9:45 pm Why the fuck are animal MRI scans more expensive than human scans ?

Bupa rate cardiac MRI with contrast - £2000
The same on British Heart Foundation research charity rate - £420

Depends a bit on your animal tbh. The trickiest bit of an MRI scanner to build is a magnetic field that is constant throughout and as the scanner gets wider this gets exponentially harder. Building a scanner wide enough for a rat is cheap (you can do it with solid state magnets) but building a scanner wide enough for a horse is gonna cost you.

DeskJockey wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 6:46 am But, where is the emergency start video?

I may not have a cold start but I have a cold stop…

Explosive Newt wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 7:28 am

V8Granite wrote: Tue Mar 03, 2026 9:45 pm Why the fuck are animal MRI scans more expensive than human scans ?

Bupa rate cardiac MRI with contrast - £2000
The same on British Heart Foundation research charity rate - £420

Depends a bit on your animal tbh. The trickiest bit of an MRI scanner to build is a magnetic field that is constant throughout and as the scanner gets wider this gets exponentially harder. Building a scanner wide enough for a rat is cheap (you can do it with solid state magnets) but building a scanner wide enough for a horse is gonna cost you.

And I guess if they've bought the horse scanner, they're still going to use it for the rat.

This thread is useful as I was considering getting an open MRI scanner just for weekend fun.

Explosive Newt wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 7:28 am

V8Granite wrote: Tue Mar 03, 2026 9:45 pm Why the fuck are animal MRI scans more expensive than human scans ?

Bupa rate cardiac MRI with contrast - £2000
The same on British Heart Foundation research charity rate - £420

Depends a bit on your animal tbh. The trickiest bit of an MRI scanner to build is a magnetic field that is constant throughout and as the scanner gets wider this gets exponentially harder. Building a scanner wide enough for a rat is cheap (you can do it with solid state magnets) but building a scanner wide enough for a horse is gonna cost you.

Large Rottweiler at specialist, £5000

That did include a small neck scarf though.

Dave!

Gavster wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 8:42 am This thread is useful as I was considering getting an open MRI scanner just for weekend fun.

I think we should each get one and sort out a meet.

BTG time?

Jobbo wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 9:47 am

Gavster wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 8:42 am This thread is useful as I was considering getting an open MRI scanner just for weekend fun.

I think we should each get one and sort out a meet.

Great idea, we could do passenger rides too

Explosive Newt wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 7:28 am

V8Granite wrote: Tue Mar 03, 2026 9:45 pm Why the fuck are animal MRI scans more expensive than human scans ?

Bupa rate cardiac MRI with contrast - £2000
The same on British Heart Foundation research charity rate - £420

Interesting. The bill for the MRI on my shoulder was £425 IIRC, this was just before Xmas. Are the rates different depending on what you're imaging then?

Swervin_Mervin wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 10:59 am

Explosive Newt wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 7:28 am

V8Granite wrote: Tue Mar 03, 2026 9:45 pm Why the fuck are animal MRI scans more expensive than human scans ?

Bupa rate cardiac MRI with contrast - £2000
The same on British Heart Foundation research charity rate - £420

Interesting. The bill for the MRI on my shoulder was £425 IIRC, this was just before Xmas. Are the rates different depending on what you're imaging then?

Time in scanner (a proper cardiac is about 45-60 minutes), scanner hardware (you'll need ECG gating to time the scan to the movement of the heart) and expertise in the folks running the scanner.

V8Granite wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 9:11 am

Explosive Newt wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 7:28 am

V8Granite wrote: Tue Mar 03, 2026 9:45 pm Why the fuck are animal MRI scans more expensive than human scans ?

Bupa rate cardiac MRI with contrast - £2000
The same on British Heart Foundation research charity rate - £420

Depends a bit on your animal tbh. The trickiest bit of an MRI scanner to build is a magnetic field that is constant throughout and as the scanner gets wider this gets exponentially harder. Building a scanner wide enough for a rat is cheap (you can do it with solid state magnets) but building a scanner wide enough for a horse is gonna cost you.

Large Rottweiler at specialist, £5000

That did include a small neck scarf though.

Dave!

Wow! But yes I guess they sedated your rotty so you will have needed someone to deliver that and monitoring in the room for blood oxygen saturation, respiratory rate etc. For hardware like that you do (cost of hardware) x 10 for making it work in a strong magnetic field.

Gavster wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 8:42 am This thread is useful as I was considering getting an open MRI scanner just for weekend fun.

I would suggest building your own out of solid state magnets (Beany can pry them off old hard disks for you) for a field strength of about 0.5 Tesla. Then you can pop your leg in to see how it works.

Then you can gradually scale up to 10 tesla and levitate a frog through paramagnetism like the guys in Nottingham did.