High resolution MRI lands at Delta Oaks.

Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 4/6/2006): A story on Page B1 Tuesday incorrectly reported that a new imaging center to open at Delta Oaks will have the city's only MRI machine with a 3.0 Tesla magnet, which produces high-resolution images. The Lewis Center for Neuroimaging at the University of Oregon has a 3.0 Tesla machine, and radiologists at the Oregon Imaging Center have an agreement with the Lewis Center to scan patients there, OIC's Dr. Lee Michels said. The photo caption accompanying the story also included an error. Workers were hoisting the new machine's giant magnet in preparation for lowering it through the roof of the new imaging center.

A new stand-alone imaging center is set to open later this month at Delta Oaks, featuring a powerful magnetic resonance imaging machine capable of producing detailed, high-resolution 3-D pictures of inside the human body.

Jeffrey Wensel and Marc Garant, both board-certified radiologists, are the doctors behind Willamette Valley Imaging, at 3003 N. Delta Highway, Suite 303. Their partner in the project is Medical Development Associates, a Kansas company that develops imaging and surgery centers for physicians.

The business is the fourth stand-alone imaging clinic in the Eugene-Springfield market that features MRI. It's the first to feature what's known as a 3.0 Tesla whole body clinical MRI scanner, made by Siemens.

"It's the latest technology, and there's no reason that should be limited to Portland," Wensel said.

The $3 million Magnetom Trio 3T MRI - powered by a 29,000-pound magnet - provides more detailed images of the human body than conventional MRI, the doctors say.

That's especially important when doctors need pictures of the small joints in the extremities, such as wrists or ankles, said Jeff Richard, a Louisiana management consultant on the project. The increased strength of the magnet also means shorter scan times, he said.

Primary care physicians "realize they can better diagnose patients' ailments through the use of higher resolution, more specific imaging," Richard said.

The weight of the magnet required that the 3,500-square-foot space, tucked between a Starbucks and a Pizza Schmizza, be reinforced, Richard said. The original slab was broken and hauled off, and a thicker slab was poured to MRI specifications, with special shims put in to reduce vibration. Also, a hatch was built into the roof so that the magnet could be lowered into the clinic with a crane.

The clinic also will have a 16-slice Toshiba Aquilon CT scanner.

The radiologists will get business from primary care doctors who refer their patients to the center. They don't self-refer patients, and they won't do elective full-body scans, Wensel said.

The use of diagnostic imaging in medicine has grown rapidly in recent years because of its ability to detect illness and injury without invasive procedures. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association estimated that spending on imaging has increased 40 percent since 2000, to $100 billion, according to a February article in the Journal of the American Medical Associa- tion.

Dr. Steven Marks, medical director for Springfield-based PacificSource Health Plans, said the Eugene-Springfield market is already "more than adequately" served by MRI.

"People get concerned about getting access and getting in right away and scheduling issues, and before long, everyone has to have an MRI close at hand and convenient to them," he said. "They tend to proliferate."

Richard said demand for imaging is increasing nationally, however, and the Willamette Valley is a growing region.

Wensel said no one else in this market has a 3 Tesla magnet, which represents an advancement.

"It's the nature of technology," he said.

HOW MRI WORKS

MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, uses powerful magnets to provide detailed images of body tissue.

In conjunction with radio wave pulses of energy, the MRI scanner goes through the patient's body, point by point, and builds up two- or three-dimensional maps of tissue types, then integrates the information to create two-dimensional images or three-dimensional models.

MRI provides an unparalleled view inside the human body, and is the method of choice for the diagnosis of many types of injuries and diseases.

- Howstuffworks.com