Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), claimed to be one of the safest and most reliable diagnostic systems, has just got a facelift. It is bidding adieu to copper wires to carry imaging data from the base unit (from where it takes images of the patient) to the control room. The data will now be transferred through an optical fibre cable, significantly reducing the ‘noise’.

While receiving the data, the control room, which sits over 10 ft away, loses about 30 per cent of analogue data it picks from copper wires. This loss of data is called noise — it can reduce the image quality.

Vista Imaging, a diagnostic centre here, has acquired digital broadband MRI from Wipro GE Healthcare for Rs 5.5 crore. “This new system can take a better view of parts of the body. For one, it can give you the quantity of fat in liver in a minute. This will help in quick assessment of fat content and do away with taking a biopsy to ascertain fat content in liver,” Karthik Kuppusamy, Director (India and South Asia), Wipro GE Healthcare, told Business Line .

This is the second installation in India after a Meerut hospital acquired the first machine recently.

India is home to 1,400 MRIs in top cities. “Of this, our share is over 450. We are expecting a contribution of 20 per cent (volumes) from this new generation MRI,” he said.

Kuppusamy further said the intake of MRI machines had picked up in tier-II and tier-III cities of late. About 35 per cent of total MRI installations in the country are in these smaller cities,” he said.

Gopi Krishna Pidatala, Chief Executive Officer of Vista Imaging, said the company would set up another centre in the city this fiscal.

kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in

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