New Low Cost Specialist Incubator for Transporting Infants to and from Imaging Modalities

A company that designs, develops and manufactures neonatal specialist incubators has released a new incubator that can be used to transport infants for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) or Computed Tomography (CT) imaging scans.

The incubator is designed to accommodate MR focusing coils from most major manufacturers and is constructed from a proprietary material with minimal Radio Frequency (RF) artifacts.

The incubator was developed by Advanced Healthcare Technology (AHT; Sudbury, Suffolk, UK) together with the Academic Radiology Department at University of Sheffield (Sheffield, UK).

The Scan Pod incubator weighs 15 kg, is ventilated, and kept warm at (38 °C) using the AHT TransWarmer Infant Transport Mattress. An optional, adjustable, MR-compatible ventilator with a special access control panel is also available.

The results of a trial involving the incubator and published in the January 2014 online edition of the British Journal of Radiology stated, “Studies in eight neonatal patients produced high quality 1.5-T MRI images with low motion artefacts [...] Images were acquired using both rapid and high-resolution sequences, including three-dimensional volumes, proton spectra, and diffusion weighting [...] The incubator provides a safe, quiet environment for neonates during transport and imaging, at low cost.”

After the trial was completed, several hundred patients (an average of two infants per week) were successfully scanned using the Scan Pod at the United Kingdom Royal Hallamshire Hospital (Sheffield, UK) using the ScanPod.

Related Links:
Advanced Healthcare Technology
Academic Radiology Department, University of Sheffield
UK Royal Hallamshire Hospital