Home - 3T MRI is better BE CERTAIN use 3T, Twice as good

MRI Consultants has brought the finest MRI images to help patients since 2007. If you search the internet you will find that 3T is considered better than 1.5T MRI scanners with one disadvantage - COST. The 3T scanner costs about twice that of a 1.,5T scanner. We however charge the same for our 3T super detailed and more complete studies as for a 1.5T scan. We have eliminated the COST disadvantage. We also are kind and have a special rate if you have to pay for your scan out of pocket. Please ask us. We have the two most advanced and recently installed MRI units in Delaware. We use the safest MR contrast. We are here to prvide the best MRI image in the most efficient manner. We want to provide the highest level quality of service to your patients. And we also have a focus on pediatric and cardiac MRI. Dr Chao has read about 380000 MRI studies in his career. He just wants to use his experience to help you. He has done MRI studies since 1984. He has a double fellowship in body MRI and Neuroradiology at the University of Pennsylvania. Safety should not be optional. He is the most committed MR physician in Delaware.

Our address is 1 Centurian Drive, Suite 107, Newark DE 19713. We are located between Old Churchman's Road and Route 7 on Route 4 east.

(FROM THE NORTH) Take I-94 douth to Exit 4(B) - Churchmans Rd. Proceed on Rt 58 - churchmans road to Rt 4. (Across form you is the west entrance to Delaware Park) You turn right ont Rt 4 east . You must drive 0.3 miles past (the next light) Old Churchman's Road. The look for the GO-CARE signs on the grass on the right side. We are the 1st driveway (Abby Medical Center) on the right if you are heading east on Rt 4. There is a very small sign which says centurian drive. It is easier to look for the Go-Care signs.

(FROM THE SOUTH) If you are coming via Route 1 - take this till it ends. You will see the Border cafe on the left and as you pass that light - make a left at the next light onto Rt 4 (west) and the next left into a driveway is our office.

Please feel free just to stop by and tour our facilities. You will see that we have designed one of the most patient-friendly MRI offices in the world. We have a 3T scanner - the first and only 3T scanner in Delaware sited next to a 1.5T advanced OPEN BORE MRI system - the newest in Delaware.   The best closed MRI and the best OPEN MRI side by side. It has the 4 rings of safety. If you have a pacemaker you cannot have an MRI and you should not enter the 4th ring of safety. We know your time is important so we have internet kiosks which let you check your email and do internet searches in our waiting room. We have a Playstaion3 for your children. We are able to create virtual environments to soothe your children and yourself.   You can watch a DVD until you fall asleep. This type of sedation works very well for children. We are the only facility to be able to create virtual environments and project a DVD for your children. We did this to make a place for safe and easy pediatric sedation which is better than general anesthesia. We also think that having a calm and inviting atmosphere can contribute to a good MRI study. We need you to stay still as possible for a 30-45 minute study time. We can of course shorten the study time considerably if you are anxious because of the power of the 3T magnet we use. It is up to 4 times faster than a 1.5T magent which is the next lower step in quality.    We can sometimes finish the entire study in 8-15 minutes. Lumbar spines are 16 minutes non contrast. We can do a shoulder study in about 12 minutes and can accelerate it to 8 minutes if we have to. A brain MR study is 12 minutes for a complete 7 series study.

And we give you the images on a CD ROM which you can view on your own home computer (PC only) (and keep for your medical records). You can also copy the CD to give to other health care professionals. And you can copy this disk for all your referring doctors so they can see the full dynamic range of the image on their own PC. Our scanner makes so many images that traditional film is actually obsolete.   Unfortunately some doctors still insist on films. Those doctors will have to understand we cannot film every image.  We film only selected images. We make 128 images of your brain in about 5 minutes. Our breast MRI studies are 1950 images in a half hour.   We have made the most complete BREAST MRI studies since 2007. A recent study just published by the ACR says that 3T MRI was 100% sensitive to find breast cancer in a group of 443 patients (University of Toledo). By looking at it in full resolution and in full dynamic range on a computer screen your doctor can actually see more than would be printed on a film. Basically the CD images are better than a filmed image. Some of our studies are so many images (2000 for a breast MRI) that you CANNOT film the study. It would be more than 100 sheets of film.

*signal to noise (SNR) is the standard reference we use to judge how good a picture is. At 3T we have twice the SNR of lower field 1.5T scanners. I like to use the analogy of megapixels in your camera. 3T is like HDTV or a 12 megapixel camera. It is the best that technology can provide. A recent visit to HOPKINS (5/19) made me feel great as the technologist told me how all their surgeons and neurologists insist on the detail and quality of 3T MRI. In Delaware it is not the case. Many specialists do not even ask why 3T is better. A 3T MRI has the advatage of detail and speed. We can do thin sections of the posterior fossa in 1 min. The same sequence at 1.5T takes 5-8 minutes.   That is up to 8 times faster for the same information. The ability to non invasively diagnose giant cell arteritis is a unique ability of 3T MRI. Using SWI (susceptibility weighted imaging) or GRE at 3T helps us pick up subtle hemorrhage. We can detect hemorrhage with at least 3 times the sensitvity using these techniques. If you do a web search on breast MRI and 3T or musculoskeletal MRI and 3T you will see the difference. I have seen it for over two years. It truly is remarkable! You never want to go back to blurry images. Also using new sequences such as REVEAL and BLADE allow your MRI to detect tumors and cancers that no other MRI unit can see. There truly has been advnaces made in MR technology but most of our physicians still don't know about them. Some doctors simply say they do not need better images. They say they are happy with their blurry and older machines. I will let you think about that. The problem is that doctors don't want to spend the money to get the better pictures and newer machines. That is why I left my prior employer. Or the patients don't know enough to choose their facility wisely. Once you have the doctors prescription you can go to any facility for your MR imaging. Most of our patients come back because we really do deliver the best care. Choose the best! REALLY GREAT MRI at 3T or REALLY ADVNACED OPEN MRI at 1.5T. At our facilities you get to choose the best MRI for you!

http://www.smmmc.org/clinicalservices/radiology/3T/
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/mri/mri_during.html