MRI waiting time for OPD patients cut at PGI

Naina Mishra

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Chandigarh, December 24

Now, patients will not have to wait for several months altogether to get an MRI done at the PGI.

The Department of Radiodiagnosis and Imaging was recently equipped with the ‘most advanced’ 3 Tesla machine, raising the number of MRI machines at the hospital to five.

Down to 2 months From seven earlier

With the installation of the fifth MRI machine, backlog of patients needing MRI will come down. We have been able to reduce the waiting time for MRI appointments from seven months to two months. — Prof MS Sandhu, Head, Dept of Radiodiagnosis & Imaging, PGI

Prof MS Sandhu, Head, Department of Radiodiagnosis and Imaging, said, “This will greatly help the patient care services at the institute. The new machine can diagnose 30 per cent quicker than a standard machine. With the installation of the fifth MRI machine, backlog of patients needing MRI will come down. We have been able to reduce the waiting time for MRI appointments from seven months to two months.”

“The state-of-the-art powerful hardware, combined together with artificial intelligence-based advance applications (software), will help all clinical specialties of the hospital to get better diagnosis and treatment planning,” said Prof Paramjeet Singh, who was instrumental in putting together this vital and high-end installation.

With a magnetic field strength twice as powerful as conventional 1.5 Tesla MRI, the new 3 Tesla MRI machine provides extremely clear and vivid images of the human body. The new machine is ideal for brain, vascular, musculoskeletal, small bone imaging and also functional imaging of the brain.

The advanced MRI imaging capability of the new machine will give early insights for cancer detection and characterisation, epilepsy and seizure disorders, sports injuries and rehabilitation, liver, pancreas, kidney, intestinal and other abdominal disorders, spine anomalies, nerve compressions, white matter anomalies in brain, neonatal and pediatric disorders and whole body screening.

The system is equipped with advanced imaging for all body parts, including high-resolution brain tractography, functional MRI, non-contrast perfusion and non-contrast vascular imaging, advanced compressed sensing and simultaneous multi-slice imaging to name a few.

“For diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients’ applications like high-resolution diffusion imaging, tumor load calculation and MRI-guided breast biopsy will now be available,” said Prof Paramjeet.

Earlier, OPD patients had to wait for seven-eight months for getting MRI appointment, because patients at wards of the hospital would get preference and got the diagnosis done in two-three days.