3 ms·
How much higher is the image density here? Is it worth a 15-fold markup? If I'm paying out of pocket and can't afford $1500, can I have the option of paying $10
by Agathos 17y ago
How much higher is the image density here? Is it worth a 15-fold markup? If I'm paying out of pocket and can't afford $1500, can I have the option of paying $100 for a lower-density image?
- mhb 17y agoI found these which offer MRIs in the $500 range. Maybe they're scams of some kind. Maybe not. http://www.wecaremedicalmall.org/ http://www.wecaremedicalmall.org/ http://www.mriscangroup.com/ http://www.mriscangroup.com/
- yummyfajitas 17y agoIt depends on the size of the features the doctor is looking for. In the US, we typically use 1.5-3 tesla machines at a cost of $1-4 million. Price goes up faster past 4 tesla, and 8 tesla reaches safety limitations. In-plane resolution is roughly proportional to the field gradient. On 3 tesla machines, you can get voxels on the order of 1mm x 1mm x 2.5mm [1]. On a 1.5 tesla machine, you get 2mm x 2mm x 3mm. I'm told Japan typically works in the 0.5-0.75 tesla range, so expect resolution at least as bad as 4mm x 4mm x ??. (I don't know how thick their imaging plane is.) Artifacts are also considerably worse on low resolution machines. SNR and CNR (contrast/noise ratio) is also better with higher tesla machines. [1] Some people claim better resolution, but that's mostly M.D.'s who don't understand signal processing. You can make images with pixel sizes representing 0.1mm x 0.1mm, but they usually don't convey extra information.