The MAGNETOM Tim Trio whole-body 3T MRI scanner is currently the workhorse of the Centre for Functional and Metabolic Mapping. At any given time, there are approximately a dozen fMRI, spectroscopy, and diffusion studies underway on the 3T system. In addition to the brain studies, this scanner is also used for cardiac MRI scans one day a week by the Cardiovascular MRI Clinical Research Program, and a knee clinical trial is expected to begin shortly.

The 3T Tim Trio is a short-bore magnet, with a 60cm bore diameter. The system contains 102 seamlessly integrated coil elements and 32 RF channels, with the ability to scan the full body with a field of view of 50 cm and up to 181 cm in length. The maximum gradient strength is 45 mT/m with a slew rate up to 200 T/m/s, and both active and passive noise reduction technology greatly reduces noise level compared to traditional systems. The integrated Tim (Total imaging matrix) technology provides unprecedented flexibility, accuracy, and speed, and is capable of reducing scan times by up to 50%.

Technical and scanner support is available Mon-Fri from 9am-5pm by a certified MRI Technologist. After-hours and weekend scans may be accommodated by a trained MRI operator.

Some highlights of the 3T MRI facility include:

• 12-channel and 32-channel head coils
• spine, neck, body, cardiac, large flex, small flex, and knee coils
• single and multi-voxel proton spectroscopy
• diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) with 3D fiber representation
• perfusion
• angiography
• front and rear projection systems
• 4-button, 5-button, and dual-handed response pads
• eye-tracking system
• infrared video camera
• floor-to-ceiling windows