Innovations in neuroimaging to address the world’s greatest healthcare needs

Steven Williams, PhD

Professor of Neuroimaging and Director of the Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience and Maudsley Hospital

— King’s College London London, UK

 

Welcome to the 2024 Spring Edition of SIGNA™ Pulse of MR. I am honored to be the Guest Editor for this year, which also marks 40 years of SIGNA™ MR and the 30th anniversary of my fruitful collaboration with GE HealthCare.

It all began in 1994 when I became a proud owner of a GE SIGNA™ 1.5T system retrofitted with the first (Instascan) EPI system in a clinical setting outside of the US. This early adoption made a lot of noise, in more ways than one! I am pleased to report that GE HealthCare’s silent methods for both structural (SilentSuite) and functional imaging (Looping Star‡) have helped address those early concerns, and today’s scanning experience is more pleasant than it has ever been.

Issues such as claustrophobia, acoustic noise, scan duration and overall comfort have been addressed by an array of major hardware and software advances, which include 70 cm bore SIGNA™ Premier and SIGNA™ Architect systems, AIR™ coils that can be tailored to the individual patient, motion-insensitive PROMO and PROPELLER structural imaging, and a suite of acceleration techniques (e.g., HyperWorks and Sonic DL™ Cine) to speed up imaging. These innovations have increased our ability to successfully examine the most unwell patients who are often in greatest need of a radiological investigation.

Neuroimaging is the primary theme of this issue which is extremely timely. A recent review of the global burden of disease has shown that neurological conditions are now the leading cause of disability and illness currently affecting 3.4 billion people worldwide and responsible for 443 million years of healthy life lost due to illness, disability and premature death.1 Our limited ability to assess brain health by any means other than neuroimaging drives us to continually innovate and find better ways to detect pathology by measuring aberrant structure, function, physiology and metabolism.

I am pleased to report that GE HealthCare’s engineers, scientists and myriad collaborators have not rested on their laurels. In this edition, you will read about the design, development and deployment of the MAGNUS‡ gradient system and the company’s decision to pursue regulatory clearance for commercialization (see more HERE and HERE). I cannot wait to once again be an early adopter of GE HealthCare’s cutting-edge technology so we can begin to investigate the microstructural changes that occur in so many neurological and psychiatric conditions.

Such big challenges in neurology need big solutions. This edition highlights one such example, where AnaBea Solana and Timo Schirmer from GE HealthCare are leading an ambitious new public-private collaboration with 25 international partners (see more HERE). They aim to develop the next generation of screening tools to identify at the earliest stage people who are at risk of developing dementia. When these efforts are combined with the latest multi-modal PET/MR strategies, such as MotionFree Brain (see more HERE) to create the sharpest, motion-free brain images of amyloid load, the evaluation of novel disease-modifying treatments in early Alzheimer’s disease is imminent.

The prospect of improved diagnoses and new treatments is leading to ever-increasing demand for accessible MR. Such demand requires innovative solutions, as reported by Dr. Laszlo Mechtler and colleagues from DENT, whose subspecialty centers are providing an efficient one-stop shop for assessing almost 1,500 patients each day, while also participating in more than 100 neuro clinical trials (see more HERE).

GE HealthCare’s latest work in kidney, heart, prostate and musculoskeletal MR imaging are also showcased in SIGNA™ Pulse of MR. I would like to personally thank you for reading this edition and I look forward to seeing many of you in Singapore… or is it SIGNApore?

‡ Technology in development that represents ongoing research and development efforts. These technologies are not products and may never become products. Not for sale. Not cleared or approved by the US FDA or any other global regulator for commercial availability.

Reference

1. GBD 2021 Nervous System Disorders Collaborators. Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990-2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021. Lancet Neurol. 2024 Apr;23(4):344-381.