News | October 02, 2013

Researchers getting five times more accurate images with sodium MRI device

Sodium MRI mammography systems women's health brigham young utah university

October 2, 2013 — A joint Brigham Young University-University of Utah research team is developing a new breast cancer screening technique that has the potential to reduce false positives and, possibly, minimize the need for invasive biopsies.

Led by BYU electrical engineer Neal Bangerter and University of Utah collaborators Rock Hadley and Joshua Kaggie, the group has created a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device that could improve both the process and accuracy of breast cancer screening by scanning for sodium levels in the breast.

The device is producing as much as five times more accurate images than previous efforts with an emerging methodology called sodium MRI.  Sodium MRI has the potential to improve assessment of breast lesions because sodium concentrations are thought to increase in malignant tumors. Bangerter and his team believe that the addition of sodium MRI to a breast cancer screening exam could provide important additional diagnostic information that will cut down on false positives.

The team has developed a new device used for sodium imaging that is picking up a level of detail and structure not previously achieved.

"This development by Dr. Bangerter and his group represents a major advance in the field of multinuclear MRI of the breast," said Stanford Professor of Radiology Bruce Daniel. "He and his group have invented a way to dramatically boost the sodium signal from the breast, enabling much better, higher resolution sodium MR images to be obtained. This should open the door to new avenues of research into breast cancer."

So far, the technique returns high-quality images in 20 minutes, improving the odds that sodium MRI breast scans could be implemented clinically.

The MRI team's goal is to produce a device capable of obtaining both excellent sodium and good proton images without requiring the patient being screened to be repositioned for multiple scans.

"This method is giving us new physiological information we can't see from other types of images," Bangerter said. "We believe this can aid in early breast cancer detection and characterization while also improving cancer treatment and monitoring."

For more information: www.eurekalert.org


Related Content

News | Advanced Visualization

July 28, 2025 — Frost & Sullivan has named Siemens Healthineers the 2025 North America Company of the Year in the ...

Time July 28, 2025
arrow
News | Radiology Imaging

July 25, 2025 — Data in recent staffing surveys from the American Society of Radiologic Technologists show that vacancy ...

Time July 25, 2025
arrow
News | Artificial Intelligence

July 22, 2025 — GE HealthCare has topped a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) list of AI-enabled medical device ...

Time July 23, 2025
arrow
News | Prostate Cancer

July 16, 2025 — Artificial intelligence can improve diagnostic consistency and reduce false-positives in prostate cancer ...

Time July 22, 2025
arrow
News | Breast Imaging

July 8, 2025 — QT Imaging Holdings, has appointed Elaine Iuanow, MD, as chief medical officer (CMO) and Kim Du as senior ...

Time July 09, 2025
arrow
News | Breast Imaging

July 7, 2025 — SimonMed Imaging, one of the largest outpatient medical imaging providers in the United States, has ...

Time July 08, 2025
arrow
News | Prostate Cancer

June 26, 2025 – Quibim, a global provider of quantitative medical imaging solutions, has launched AI-QUAL, a new feature ...

Time June 26, 2025
arrow
News | Breast Imaging

June 25, 2025 — QT Imaging Holdings, Inc., a medical device company engaged in research, development, and ...

Time June 25, 2025
arrow
News | Mammography

April 29, 2025 — iCAD, a global provider of clinically proven AI-powered cancer detection solutions, has announced a ...

Time April 29, 2025
arrow
News | Mammography

April 24, 2025 — GE HealthCare will feature its latest advancements in diagnostic accuracy and patient-centered breast ...

Time April 24, 2025
arrow
Subscribe Now