Patent ID: 8295905
Filing Date: 2012-10-23
Classification: A61B,G01R

Abstract:
1. A method for imaging a part of a patient comprising: providing a plurality of rooms each arranged for use in imaging a patent from said plurality of patients independently, the plurality of rooms including at least a first room and a second room; providing a first patient support table arranged for interventional procedures on a first patient and mounted in the first room; providing a magnetic resonance imaging system for obtaining images of a part of a patient from the plurality of patients, the magnetic resonance imaging system comprising: the magnet surrounding the cylindrical bore with the horizontal axis of the bore longitudinal of the magnet arranged such that the part of the patient is positioned in the bore so as to lie in the magnetic field of the magnet while the patient is located in place on the table; moving the magnet and its bore from the second room to the first room along a longitudinally extending support in a longitudinal direction along the horizontal axis of the bore so as to move the magnet and its bore into a position surrounding the first table for locating the part of the first patient on the first table at the imaging location; moving the diagnostic table carried on the magnet on the longitudinally extending support from the second room to the first room; in the second room, imaging a second patient from said plurality of patients by placing the patient on the diagnostic table in the second room magnet; during said moving of the magnet from the second room to the first room rotating the magnet and its bore together with the diagnostic table carried thereon about a vertical axis passing through the bore relative to the longitudinally extending support so as to rotate the magnet and the horizontal bore axis about the vertical axis; the rotating of the magnet and its bore being arranged such that the second end of the bore is presented to the first table and the first end of the bore is spaced away from the first table so that the magnet and its bore is moved into the position surrounding the first table for locating the part of the first patient on the first table at the imaging location; and in the first room imaging the first patient using the magnetic resonance imaging system with the first patient located on the first table.