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Varian, Inc. announces the successful completion of the world's first actively shielded 7 Tesla whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) magnet.

Ultra High Field (UHF) MRI at 7T offers unmatched resolution, enabling researchers to visualize exquisite anatomical and functional detail in the human brain or other organs.

Clinical MRI systems use actively shielded magnets at 1.5 or 3 Tesla. Until now, however, UHF MRI magnets have typically required 400 to 800 tons of surrounding iron to form a magnetic shield. This amount of iron must be built into the fabric of the building, limiting the number of sites that can accommodate a UHF MRI research system. Extending active shielding technology to 7 Tesla magnets will allow these powerful research instruments to be more widely available.

The Varian, Inc. Magnet Technology Centre in Oxford, UK has manufactured over 80% of the world's UHF MRI magnet systems. This, the world's first 7 Tesla actively shielded magnet, was commissioned by a US government research facility to demonstrate engineering leadership with the goal of having the technology adopted by clinical MRI system vendors. The magnet will be commissioned at its final site in the US in early 2010.

"Varian's whole-body 7T magnet allows researchers to advance our understanding of human biology with more detailed images," said Martin O'Donoghue, Senior Vice President, Scientific Instruments, Varian, Inc. "Our active shielding technology makes this powerful tool accessible to a much larger number of scientists and institutions."

Varian's Senior MRI Magnet Designer, Rory Warner, stated that the factory tests results were very pleasing. "The new 7T actively shielded magnet performs as expected. It exhibits all the excellent homogeneity and stability characteristics that we had designed for," he said.
 
Source: Varian, Inc.

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