Use of human MRI grows sharply

The 3T MRI scanner at the N Center has recently found an exploding number of users filling up the calendar for several weeks in advance. For one thing, the scanner was broken in January and had to be tested and fixed for weeks, causing backlog of scans now being rushed to complete. That repair, by the way, was due to the famous Prisma 80/200 gradient coil failing from the inside; it was claimed to be an isolated incident but if so we were very unlucky. For another, the use was driven by brain function researchers from inside and outside of our Center, doing volunteers studies ranging from pain response to learning response. Research on demand also includes animal brain studies, imaging for which is harder to prepare and also cumbersome to clean up. Overall, the scanner is fully booked during business hours and approximately 25% booked off-hours. So, Dr. Lee and Ms. Yoo teamed up on 3/1, a National Holiday, to do some volunteers scans. Ms. Yoo was scanned first, and a fresh volunteer of her age was scanned later in the day. These scans will add to the data to be presented in the ISMRM 2017 Meeting in Honolulu (hopefully).