Bassett Medical Center welcomes state of the art MRI
Story Created:
Feb 2, 2012 at 6:40 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Feb 2, 2012 at 7:44 PM EDT
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (WKTV) - The most advanced of medical imaging machines has found a new home at a Central New York hospital - new technology that gives doctors a much clearer picture.
Have you ever needed an MRI? If you do need to have one in the future, you might want to consider going to Bassett Medical Center. They just invested in a brand new machine that doctors say is like going from an old TV to a flat screen, high-definition television.
"That's the detail that we can see now. It is absolutely incredible," remarked Dr. Lawrence Barnowsky, a radiologist at Bassett Medical Center.
The new machine is called a "3-T MRI", or 3 Tesla. The "T" refers to the strength of the magnet used in the imaging machine. Older machines are only operating at strength around 1.5. Since the magnet is stronger, doctors are able to see more details and as a result, they can better diagnose their patients. Barnowsky says he and his colleagues are now referencing books and taking classes to become re-familiarized with some of these new, yet old, sights on the MRI images. The hospital is very excited about this new technology and what it can do for them.
"It's very very exciting. We're going to be learning things. We're going to be discovering new parts of the body that we never really realized, in terms of the anatomy, were there. We're going to be making new diagnosis, I think, as well," Dr. Barnowsky said.
This new technology allows doctors to see things that they've never been able to see before without having to operate on the patient. They also say the larger opening to the machine is better for patient comfort, too.
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