SIGNA™ 7.0T installed at IMAGO7 Foundation in Pisa

The first SIGNA™ 7.0T‡ MR system in Italy has been installed at the IMAGO7 Foundation, a consortium for scientific research in the field of magnetic resonance (MR) at ultra-high static fields, affiliated with the University of Pisa. The new ultra-high-field MR was recently upgraded from the investigational Discovery™ MR950 7.0T system in late 2021.

Led by Michela Tosetti, PhD, Professor of Magnetic Resonance Physics and Director of Medical Physics and MR Lab, IRCCS Stella Maris Scientific Institute and IMAGO7 Research Foundation, the foundation will pursue research in the fields of medicine, physiology and neuroscience, as well as the development of applied technology. The foundation will also investigate the application of ultra-high-field MR in clinical research.

“The IMAGO7 Foundation was established to explore the application of ultra-high-field MR to scientific research in medicine, physiology and neuroscience,” says Professor Tosetti. “We visited GE in January 2020 and were immediately impressed with the quality and stability of the SIGNA™ 7.0T system. We were keen to upgrade our system to this new configuration, continuing our relationship with GE to realize the promise of this technology to meet our research goals.”

The SIGNA™ 7.0T is designed to overcome the limitations of the majority of today’s clinical MR systems by leveraging the ultrahigh- field magnet technology within its core. With approximately five times higher field strength than most clinical systems, SIGNA™ 7.0T is designed to detect subtle structures that may be significant for clinicians and researchers alike. This new 60-centimeter bore system is designed to be a more powerful tool to image neurodegenerative diseases, as well as extremities.

SIGNA™ 7.0T features UltraG gradient technology, GE’s most powerful, whole-body gradient coil, designed to meet the needs of ultra-high-field imaging speed and resolution. This system features the familiarity of the SIGNA™Works applications platform so clinicians can use the latest state-of-the- art applications, such as deep-learning-based platform tools like AIR x™ brain for automated slice positioning and Silent MR imaging. In addition, SIGNA™ 7.0T is equipped with Precision RF transmit and receive architecture designed to enable improved image quality and research flexibility. Lastly, SIGNA™ 7.0T includes AIR™ Recon DL to bring out the best of 7.0T imaging through its noise reduction and truncation artifact suppression.