University Hospital has three Acuson Sequoia, one ATL HDI 5000, and one ATL HDI 3000 ultrasound units, all with spectral and color duplex Doppler. Both University Hospital and The Kirklin Clinic are filmless, using Acuson's Aegis system to review and archive images. Presently, the UAB radiology department operates 5 MRI scanners. Our inpatient units are a GE 1.5 Tesla Horizon LX Echospeed, and a GE Signa 1.5 T magnet at the University Hospital, along with a GE Advantage Windows workstation. Our outpatient units at The Kirklin Clinic are a GE 1.5 T Horizon LX Echospeed, a Horizon LX2 Hi-Speed 1.5 Tesla magnet, and a Siemens Expert 1.0 Tesla magnet.
All magnets have vascular imaging packages.
When assigned to MRI, the fellow covers both inpatient and outpatient cases. We perform 15-20 studies per week, with the case material consisting of a mixture of hepatobiliary, genitourinary, gynecologic, vascular, and thoracic disease. Though our department's musculoskeletal division has primary responsibility for musculoskeletal MR, we encourage our fellows to participate in their readout sessions. We have conducted research projects involving investigational MR contrast agents, pancreatic disease, and preoperative staging of liver tumors. Research Time is available for research, and fellows are encouraged to become involved in projects during the fellowship year.