The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center https://wexnermedical.osu.edu is one of the first and the only hospital in Ohio to use new portable, real-time Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technology to evaluate and treat stroke patients’ brains at their bedside.
The portable device assesses brain tissue in real time which enables physicians to make quick and informed clinical decisions for patients. MRI results are displayed on an iPad and deliver images of the brain tissue within 15 minutes.
“This Portable MRI uses a fraction of the magnetic power that larger conventional MRIs typically use in hospitals,” said Dr. Shahid Nimjee, a Neurosurgeon at the Wexner Medical Center and Surgical Director of the Comprehensive Stroke Center.
He continued to point out, “Bringing this technology to the patient’s bedside will allow us to potentially provide more patients with acute treatment for ischemic stroke that is currently available by extending the treatment window for using the clot-busting drug tissue Plasminogen Activator (tPA).”
According to Dr. Nimjee, “There is a shorter time when tPA can be given which is when the patient was last known to be without the signs and symptoms of the current stroke. Increasing the speed to correlate clinical symptoms with brain tissue imaging will help provide more patients presenting with acute ischemic stroke with treatment.