Combining MRI with other neurological techniques could improve diagnostics

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become one of the most important tools available for looking inside the human body, especially for disorders of the brain and nervous system, which are not easily accessible and for which it is often the only effective imaging tool. But imaging is not the only way of monitoring these systems, and it has up to now been impossible to use MRI and other techniques such as EEG or ECG simultaneously. A team at Indiana’s Purdue University has now developed a device that allows medical imaging and recording to be carried out at the same time.

“When a patient is receiving an MRI scan, it is very difficult to also monitor brainwaves, ECG, or other biological signals,” explained Nishant Babaria, co-author of a paper presented at the recent International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine conference in Honolulu. “MRI alone does not always provide enough information to clinicians. There is tremendous scientific and clinical value in using multiple technologies together on a single platform.”