A new MRI scanner designed to sit directly inside a neonatal intensive care unit will let doctors scan critically ill newborns without moving them to a separate radiology department. Currently, sick or premature babies who need brain scans must be transported—often in a specialised incubator—to a hospital’s main MRI suite. This journey can be dangerous for unstable infants, and the scanner’s strong magnetic field and loud noise can disturb both the baby and other patients. The project tackles this by building a magnet with a much smaller stray field, using novel coil geometry and a pulsed-tube cryocooler to reduce noise. A custom incubator with an extendable bed will slide the baby into the scanner without removing them from their controlled environment. Once built, three systems will be installed in UK NICUs to test diagnostic accuracy against ultrasound for neonatal encephalopathy—a brain injury from oxygen deprivation. If successful, this could transform how brain injuries are diagnosed in newborns. Instead of relying on ultrasound alone, clinicians would have routine access to MRI-quality images at the cot-side, enabling faster, more precise treatment decisions and potentially improving long-term outcomes for thousands of babies each year.
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The vision is to be able to offer a complete Neonatal imaging solution including MR scanning in a safe environment in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, NICU, with the incubator dockable to the magnet and including anaesthesia and ventilation system capabilities connected to the unit. The first goal is therefore to develop an MRI magnet with greatly reduced fringe field to minimise the area surrounding for which access must be restricted. This will entail using novel coil geometry, wherein there are multiple field cancellation coils that are positioned further along the magnet axis than is normally the case. Treatment of the gradient coil and the cooling in the magnet bore will be necessary to a much higher degree than normal due to the increased sensitivity of neonates to their environment. Gradient noise reduction techniques will need to be developed to avoid disturbance to the baby in the magnet bore and other babies and staff in the NICU. The use of a Pulsed Tube Cryocooler will also minimise the acoustic noise in the room. A further goal is to develop a mating incubator with an extendable 'baby bed' that can insert the baby into the magnet bore without the need to disturb the infant. Interfacing electronics and sensing will be needed to ensure a match of the magnet bore environment before inserting the baby to avoid shocking the baby. Magnet friendly monitoring sensors will also be needed. Once developed, we plan to install three systems on regional NICU's in the UK and perform studies of diagnostic accuracy and confidence of the MR system against co-temporous ultrasound in cases of neonatal encephalopathy. The Royal Hailamshire Hospital, Sheffield is part of the application and the other 2 sites are to be confirmed.
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