What does the equipment look like?
You will be taken into an examining room with a scanning machine that may look like a computer with a TV screen. A small hand-held device called a transducer, which looks like a microphone, is placed over the area of interest. Transducers are available that conform to different parts of the body, such as the leg for doing a venous ultrasound study. They range in size from that of a fat pen to one resembling a deck of cards. Once the exam begins, the ultrasound image can be seen in black and white on the screen (or in color if a special type of exam called color flow or power Doppler ultrasound is done to monitor blood flow in the veins).
Photographs of the actual MRI equipment we use at Bethesda MRI are featured throughout our website. It consists of a cylinder-shaped compartment that contains a very strong magnet in which the patient must lie still for periods lasting several minutes. Our high field MRI machines are less confining than most high field magnets and are made in a way that eliminates much of the noise other MRI machines produce. Our MRI is built with a wider tunnel than most and it is ultra short so you experience a much more open feeling than in other high field MRI machines. Our equipment is brand new, state of the art and produces the best possible image quality.
The radio receiver is about the size of a small paperback book. The antennas range in size from a 24″ x 36″ grilled directional unit to a small 4″ x 10″ oval shaped antenna. They are all very lightweight and no more difficult to install than a DishTV or Direct TV dish. The cables used for exterior mounting come in set lengths, but can be ordered longer, and sometimes shorter, depending on the application. The cables are 1/4″ in diameter, with the connections being slightly larger. The cable is fairly flexible, but should not be bent too sharply.
4pi uses a combination of professional camera equipment (which should look familiar), specialized professional camera mounts (which looks a little unusual), and equipment we design and build ourselves (some of which looks a little bizarre but gets the job done). The photo below shows our most simple 4pi capture platform. To get the best possible results, we use the best of the best… • Canon Professional Digital SLR cameras • Sigma lenses • Manfrotto tripods and mounts • Apple computers Like our software, if our hardware does not do exactly what we need it to do, we will modify it or build from scratch.
