Pakistan first in Asia to acquire portable, bedside MRI system: AKU

KARACHI: Pakistan has become the first country in Asia and only the third outside the USA to acquire a portable MRI, magnetic resonance imaging, system that can be wheeled directly to a patient's bedside and make MR imaging as simple as receiving a bedside ECG.

The Aga Khan University’s Medical College has acquired the Hyperfine Swoop MRI, which is the US Federal Drug Administration-cleared as part of the MUMTA trial which will deliver the first-ever insights into how providing nutrition supplements to pregnant woman affects the size and structure of the brains of newborns and infants.

Hospitals in Pakistan and around the world currently have conventional, fixed MRI systems – a diagnostic device used to produce detailed images of organs and tissue – which are so large that they need to be kept in two dedicated, custom-designed rooms.

Traditional MRIs are also unsuitable for use with critically-ill patients, who are difficult to transport from the bed to radiology, as well as with patients who may feel intimidated by the loud noises inside the ‘tunnel’ of the large, dome-shaped machine, which is typically seven feet high and more than four feet wide.