MRI-Compatible Treadmill Provides Best Images Yet of Heart After Exercise

Researchers have developed a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-compatible treadmill, which allows physicians to obtain MRI images of the heart immediately after exercise. The technology will soon be available to hospitals and patients everywhere through a new start-up company.

The new company is called EXCMR, Ltd. (Columbus, OH, USA). The research team that created the device draws from three Ohio State University (OSU; Columbus, USA) colleges, and the student who worked on the invention and wrote the business plan has just been hired as EXCMR's first employee.

Each year, American cardiologists perform approximately 10 million treadmill exercise stress tests to evaluate patients with possible coronary artery disease. After exercise, physicians obtain images of the heart using ultrasound or other techniques.

MRI offers clearer images, but because MRI machines contain giant magnets, and treadmills are constructed using magnetic motors and materials, the two machines cannot be in the same room. The quest for better images of the heart at peak stress prompted a collaboration of Ohio State University heart specialists and engineers in an effort to save lives.

Led by Dr. Orlando Simonetti, associate professor of internal medicine and radiology at Ohio State's Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital, researchers created a treadmill that could be located right next to the MRI to allow high definition imaging of the heart almost immediately after exercise. By developing a hydraulic power system to replace the electric motor, and using nonmagnetic materials, the treadmill could be safely used next to the MRI.

The university's Technology Licensing and Commercialization office began working early with the inventors and guiding them as they considered starting the company and licensing the university intellectual property.

Most stress-imaging tests performed today are performed using ultrasound or nuclear cameras and only a fraction of them involve MRI. Dr. Simonetti noted one reason for this limited utilization of MRI is that drugs must be used to simulate the stress that the heart naturally experiences with exercise. "With our machine, we are able to exercise patients to peak stress and obtain high-definition MRI images of their heart within 60 seconds," Dr. Simonetti said. "MRI images are higher resolution and we think the test will prove to be more accurate than other imaging methods. We hope the invention improves the accuracy of diagnosing patients with coronary artery disease."

While an early version of the machine has been used successfully at the OSU Medical Center in 2010, Dr. Simonetti reported that the totally MRI-compatible version is still being modified. Researchers expect to start using it for clinical research studies in the next three months.

As the company grows, the researchers plan to setup manufacturing facilities in central Ohio and ramp up to five or more employees in the next year or two.

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