Magnetic Resonance Imaging facility planning : Climate conditions versus image quality

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a sensitive imaging method. Radio Frequency (RF) disturbances and local climatic conditions together can destroy image data. MR scanner is installed in a special room called RF room. An RF room needs specific climatic conditions to ensure good image quality performance and patient comfort during imaging. The study is divided into a theoretical part and a practical part. The theoretical part focuses on explaining MRI system´s operating principles, components and needs. The typical site layout and challenges of planning are also described in the theory part. The practical part goes thru data collecting, sorting and analyzing. After analyzing, conclusions and suggestions are given as an outcome of the study. The study is done to clarify issues with climate conditions in hospitals and clinics, which can cause image quality issues if climate conditions are not in manufacturer’s recommendation. Climate condition is wide entirety. The study focuses to relative humidity and its correlation to image quality performance. Image quality problems are one of the most affecting issues for imaging department patient workflow. Issues with workflow are causing longer patient queues. Long turnaround has financial affect for clinic/hospital as well. Therefore, it is important to prevent those incidents, which are caused by facility climate condition functions. Data was collected from five existing MRI systems. Collected anonymized data was analyzed. Data-analysis show correlation with relative humidity and image quality issue clearly. One of the systems´ climate conditions was so bad that images were not diagnostically valid. On the other hand, the reference system has its climate conditions within specification and no image quality issues were occurred. MRI manufacturers have self-explanatory specifications for MRI system environment. On MRI facility planning phase these are easy and cost-effective to take care of. This small investment on planning/construction phase saves a lot of money thru MRI system life cycle