February 25, 2011 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared a specialty musculoskeletal magnetic resonance (MR) system. GE Healthcare’s Optima MR430s delivers 1.5T image quality for precise imaging of the arm, including elbow, wrist and hand, or the leg, including knee, ankle and foot.
The system offers industry-leading gradients, delivering 70mT/m of strength and 300T/m/s of slew rate. Short echo spacing and high signal to noise ratio enable high resolution and sharp images. Additionally, it has a small footprint, measuring 222 square feet.
It is also designed specifically for patient comfort, since patients can sit in a padded chair. Six iso-centric dedicated RF coils can accommodate a full range of patient sizes and anatomies. The system’s design also ensures that the targeted anatomy is precisely positioned at the magnet’s isocenter and coil proximity increases signal-to-noise ratio for high clarity—even in small anatomies.
“Our goal is to guide our patients to the right MRI scanner for their needs,” said William B. Morrison, M.D., Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia. “For those patients who need extremities scanned, the first goal is comfort. The second is to keep patients still so we can get the best image consistency. The quicker the patient is in and out, the better it is for everyone. We’re assured that we get excellent quality images.”
The system also helps alleviate the demand on a hospital’s full-body scanner.
For more information: www.gehealthcare.com
April 09, 2026 
