Health Canada okays new MRI scanner

OAKVILLE, Ont. – Siemens Healthineers announced that Health Canada has licensed the MAGNETOM Sola, its new 1.5T magnetic resonance system with a large 70 cm bore. This system brings BioMatrix technology, introduced in 2017 with the 3 Tesla MAGNETOM Vida system, to the 1.5 Tesla segment, making it available to a greater range of MRI providers and patients.

BioMatrix technology provides consistent, high-quality imaging by automatically adjusting to the patient’s individual anatomy and physiology and thus expanding precision medicine.

With MAGNETOM Sola, the BioMatrix Tuners – the new intelligent coil technology – automatically adapt to challenging patient anatomy for reliable exams with CoilShim and Slice Adjust technology, now also for an even broader range of clinical fields.

Furthermore, with the introduction of MAGNETOM Sola, Siemens Healthineers enhances the functionality of its BioMatrix Interfaces for precise and easy patient preparation.

MAGNETOM Sola comes with many new productivity applications to reduce examination times, increase patient throughput, and help lower costs per scan, the company said.

Simultaneous Multi-Slice (SMS) allows acquiring multiple slices in parallel and will now also be available for broadly used TSE sequences.

Musculoskeletal examinations, which make up a large percentage of MRI exams, can now be significantly shortened by up to 46 percent. Complemented by the use of artificial intelligence to further automate routine tasks, a further reduction of overall exam times can be achieved.

With this, Siemens Healthineers is making an important contribution to increase the productivity of MR imaging. In addition to accelerating and automating routine exams, such as brain, spine and musculoskeletal (MSK) exams, MAGNETOM Sola will also provide workflow standardization for more challenging clinical areas, such as whole-body MRI.

The Whole-Body Dot Engine is now available for the first time with a 1.5T system, and these difficult scans can now be carried out in predictable time slots, in less than 30 minutes, with very high quality.

Thanks to BioMatrix and further innovative applications, MAGNETOM Sola offers new and more comprehensive clinical possibilities in 1.5 Tesla imaging, enabling radiology providers to expand their MRI services.

For example, cardiac function can be measured in a free-breathing exam with Compressed Sensing Cardiac Cine, which greatly improves the patient experience during the MR examination and enables patients to be imaged who cannot hold their breath.

Compressed Sensing GRASP-VIBE is now for the first time available in the 1.5T segment with MAGNETOM Sola. This application makes dynamic liver imaging under free-breathing possible – with a simple push-button workflow; the complex process of managing the timing of breath-holds and contrast-agent administration is no longer necessary.

MAGNETOM Sola also features the latest magnet technology from Siemens Healthineers with low helium inventory, efficient energy management, as well as a completely new user environment. An innovative design, lightweight ultra-high-density coils and perfectly streamlined workflows are sure to increase user and patient satisfaction alike.

BioMatrix technology on MAGNETOM Sola will serve as the basis to consistently derive quantitative information, and will be the platform to develop future applications powered by artificial intelligence.

Further information is available at www.siemens-healthineers.com.