A new state-of-the-art 3.0 Tesla MRI scanner for patient care and research and a 16.4 Tesla (700 MHz) MR spectrometer for research were installed at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. Dr T Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, inaugurated the new facilities on March 23, 2010 in the presence of Prof R C Deka, director, AIIMS.

Dr Ramasami in his address said that AIIMS is doing pioneering work in the area of biomedical magnetic resonance imaging and he is happy about the progress of the Department of MRI that it has achieved in the international scene. Prof N R Jagannathan, Head of the Department of NMR & MRI Facility at AIIMS pointed out that the new Achieva 3.0 Tesla TX MRI scanner that has the latest first multi-transmit parallel RF transmission technology to be installed in India. This technology will overcome the challenges of high-field imaging, such as the dielectric effect and will provide optimum image uniformity, consistency and high throughput due to faster scanning.

This MRI scanner has wider range of applications like breast, body, and cardiac imaging. Prof Jagannathan also informed that a 3 Tesla high field MR scanner gives increased contrast, sensitivity, resolution, angiography and functional MRI (fMRI). This would provide higher spatial resolution for better diagnostic accuracy; high quality cardiac imaging and small tumors and stenosis previously undetected can now detected leading to better treatment.

The 700 MHz NMR spectrometer is a sophisticated instrument that can be used to obtain biochemical information of tissues, blood, bio-fluids, cells, etc. This kind of metabolic profiling provides a new approach and opportunity to explore the metabolic effects of many conditions in complex disease processes that can be used in diagnosis, drug research, etc.