Why Does An MRI Cost So Much? - Science Learning Hub

Open main menuTopicsConceptsCitizen scienceTeacher PLDGlossarySign inView notificationsOpen searchVideoWhy does an MRI cost so much?Download

Dr Richard Watts from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Canterbury explains why an MRI machine is so expensive.

Transcript

DR RICHARD WATTSThe main cost of the MRI scanner is in generating this very large, very uniform magnetic field. And the way that we do that is using super conducting wires. So super conducting materials have this unique property that they have no electrical resistance. It’s not nearly nothing, it’s absolutely nothing. So once you start a current flowing through these coils that current will continue to flow essentially forever. So the main cost of the MRI scanner is this coil of wire, and to keep that coil of wire super-conducting, to keep it with zero resistance we have to keep it very cold. And we keep it cold using liquid helium. Liquid helium is four degrees above absolute zero, absolute zero is minus 273 degrees celcius. And when you look at the MRI scanner itself, what you’re looking at is a big tub that contains several thousand litres of liquid helium.

Glossary

Rights: The University of Waikato Published: 21 July 2007Referencing Hub media Add to collection

Explore related content

Appears inRelated resources

Article

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to detect things an X-ray can’t. MRI can look for disease, bleeding, Parkinson’s ...

Read more

Article

X-ray technology for the future

Professor Phil Butler and his team at the University of Canterbury have made X-ray detectors that give images in true ...

Read more

Article

Looking at the brain with MRI

Magnetic imaging (MRI) is one of the best techniques for imaging the brain because it gives very high quality images, ...

Read more

Article

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to detect things an X-ray can’t. MRI can look for disease, bleeding, Parkinson’s ...

Read moreBack to topYour Email addressSubscribe to newsletter

See our newsletters here.