Magnetic media (e.g. your credit card) may be affected at field strengths of 3 millitesla (mT). For comparison, this magnetic field strength is about 100 to 200 times stronger than the normal magnetic field on the surface of the Earth (depending where you are on the planet). The 3 mT field line around a typical shielded 1.5 T MRI magnet is about 2 metres from the side of the magnet, and less than 3 metres from the ends of the magnet.
Notice that the magnetic field around an MRI magnet is 500 times smaller than the strength at the isocentre at just 2 to 3 metres distance!
I wonder how the magnetic field affects the newer chip-and-pin microchip which is embedded in credit cards. Anyone care to comment?
Have you always wanted to express your passion for MRI physics but never knew how? (Come on, admit it.) If only there was an easy way of breaking into a conversation about the intrinsic nature of spin!
Well fear not, dear reader, now there is a way. Continue Reading »
Of course, the answer to any headline which asks a question is “No”. Try this with newspaper headlines. If the answer was “Yes!” the headline would read: “MRI attracts the iron in your blood!” But I digress.
Isn’t iron, well, iron? Why isn’t it attracted by the MRI magnet?
Continue Reading »
Research-based MRI image analysis often requires in-house programs to be written to perform specific tasks. High-level programming languages such as IDL and MatLab are two powerful tools used for such a purpose. But what about quick and simple DICOM viewing? For example, want to:
- view a data set?
- investigate the header information?
- anonymise a data set?
- draw a region of interest and get some descriptive statistics?
- get a line profile?
- convert the file type?
- et cetera…
Though high-level programming skills are very valuable, sometimes getting the job done quickly can be more important. For some, writing a program to complete the task in hand would mean embarking on a steep learning curve and a temporary drop in productivity. There are a number of freely available DICOM viewers to quickly perform a large number of image processing tasks. Here are three. Continue Reading »
