MRI Magnet Suite Construction - Full Service - 13 

MRI Magnet Suite Construction: The Architect, MRI Equipment Supplier, and Building Contractor Considerations during the Design and Buildout of an MRI Suite - Module #13

In the successful design and buildout of an MRI magnet suite in your Imaging Center, many functional issues must be considered in early planning and throughout the process.

While all MRI magnets share some function similarities, you must know your Magnet's needs. You will also need to understand what the MRI supplier provides and what you, as the client, must supply through your builder group.

Planning and building an MRI Imaging Center is common, and unexpected misunderstandings can occur between the client, the Architect, the Magnet Supplier, and the builders. However, employing our Consulting services can often entirely avoid these misunderstandings.

You will want to consider your magnet requirements before selecting where to place the MRI Magnet Suite.

You will have wanted to have completed your Seismic and Vibration Testing and have received good news on the suitability of your MRI Magnet suite site to enable your MRI Magnet to produce the best quality, high resolution, artifact-free, and vibration-free patient images.

In the rare instance in which the MRI Magnet room in your MRI Imaging Center does not pass vibration or Seismic Testing, if possible, you will want to look at your preliminary site plans, work with your Architect and Builder, and see if you can flip your layout to move your MRI Magnet Suite to another area in your available lease space that is further from the source(s) of the offending vibration. That may not fully resolve the issue.

I am a proponent of not finalizing a proposed MRI Imaging Center building lease until and unless your proposed MRI suite passes vibration and Seismic testing. As mentioned, we can arrange to perform these tests on your behalf.

The best and least problematic option is to install your MRI magnet on a concrete slab on grade. However, placing a 12,000-pound 1.5 Tesla MRI or a larger, heavier 3.0 Tesla MRI unit on a second floor or higher presents many significant challenges that you must consider carefully. Weight/load bearing, additional expenses, and safety will all come into play.

If you plan to have a contrast scan patient injector in your MRI imaging center that your technologist can manage from the MRI control room, you must prepare to penetrate the RF shield in the MRI Magnet Room. You will want to ensure that your builder understands the buildout and placement of the MRI Magnet Room and the penetrations of the RF shield.

When retained in working with a client MRI Imaging Center, we work very closely in the design review and planning process to ensure the MRI supplier has generated an MRI Magnet room final study that provides the full containment within the Magnet room of the MRI  5 Gauss field line. In an MRI Imaging Center, "Slab on Grade" site placement, with a second floor above the Magnet on the ground floor, the 5 Gauss field line (5G) cannot extend beyond the Magnet Room walls and bulge into the floor above. Your 5G line can extend below the floor if you are slab on grade and only have dirt underneath your MRI site slab. Your MRI supplier site study plans for your MRI placement should be carefully reviewed before the client owner signs them off.

Your MRI Imaging Center Builder will also need to understand the additional Gauss field line limitations for electrical equipment, such as the primary power transform outside the 3 Gauss field line. Often, a builder will indicate they understand what is necessary for the buildout of the Magnet room, the RF Shield, and the full MRI suite, and that is not always entirely correct. In addition to protecting others from the effect of the 5G field boundaries, builders do not always fully understand the buildout considerations to be communicated to subcontractors related to the expensive RF shield in the MRI room.

As mentioned elsewhere on this site, and as I will say again now, as it is vital and mentioned in the text above, please recall that the 5 Gauss Magnetic Field demarcation is the location at which all individuals with Cardiac Pacemakers, Neurostimulators, or Bio stimulation devices can expect to experience adverse health effects due to the magnetic field of their MRI. The 5G boundary line cannot extend outside the walls of the MRI Magnet Room.

When constructed correctly, the copper RF shield eliminates the distortion of MRI images caused by Radiofrequency noise entering the MRI Magnet Room. This allows the MRI Magnet you purchased or leased to produce the highest-quality, interference-free patient diagnostic images your MRI unit can deliver.

The RF shield is a box or cage inside your MRI Magnet room. It is usually made of thin copper and fits inside the walls, ceilings, floors, doors, and windows (copper mesh screen). Your builder must understand that any item that physically penetrates your completed RF shield, such as lighting fixtures, must have adequate RF filters to eliminate the image distortions caused by EMI/RF noise.

On some occasions, we have seen inadequate selection by the builder of electrical sub-contractors working on electrical penetrations to the RF Shield, which has resulted in delays and problems in the full completion of the MRI Magnet Room.

The Cryogen exhaust and ventilation ductwork also requires familiarity with the builder. The venting of possible Helium from your MRI magnet cannot be impeded in any way, and HVAC subcontractors must observe a minimum number and degree of bends allowed in the vent pipe. An Elbow Bend on the Cryogen ductwork cannot exceed 90 degrees.

Significant temperature, humidity, Ventilation, and air exchange ventilation requirements must be planned for and followed precisely.

When selected to provide OAC project consultation assistance on the MRI Imaging Center buildout, with our detailed professional oversight from the beginning, we can help keep you from experiencing the mistakes and issues that result in rework, additional expenses, and project delays.

There are a significant number of safety issues and industry safeguards that are all standard but crucial to deal with, which can be overlooked in the preplanning and final siting of an MRI magnet in your MRI imaging center to the detriment of all concerned.

We work very closely with the MRI vendor/manufacturer, physicist, and Architect to ensure that the FINAL STUDY provided by the MRI supplier includes architectural imaging suite-specific plans that reflect patient, staff, visitor, and building occupant comfort and safety and will result in the optimal performance of the MRI Magnet.

In the Consultation and Assistance Module, we will address

Where are you at present in your MRI Imaging Center Project? Have you selected a site location?

Have you selected an MRI Magnet? Have you conducted Seismic and Vibration Testing on the site where you wish to locate your MRI? Have you finalized your MRI site lease?

• Your MRI Magnet must be shielded from the effects of RF Noise (Radio Frequency ) and EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) to facilitate artifact and distortion-free MRI Images. We will discuss where the RF/ EMI noise can come from and provide crucial information on the work with contractors who will construct your RF shield in the MRI magnet room. Failure to build a competent RF shield will make it difficult/impossible to create high-quality MRI images, and your MRI studies will be plagued with distortion and imaging artifacts that cannot be allowed.
• The construction of the RF shield for your MRI Magnet Suite can be pretty expensive. Most RF shields are made of copper sheets, which have continued to be the most successful and preferred material for MRI Magnet rooms. We can discuss this process and vendors.
• We will discuss necessary penetrations to the RF shield, such as can lights in the ceiling or spotlights to illuminate the room, and how your building contractor must utilize appropriate filters to mitigate the potential RF "noise" from these lights and other RF Shield penetrations.
• We brief the electrical subcontractors to know and understand the penetrations of the critically important and costly RF shield. This is an area where we continue to have many issues from subcontractors that need to be addressed and often are not discussed until you have a problem.
• If you have selected an MRI supplier, do you understand what they supply and what you are responsible for, specifically the buildout of the MRI Magnet Room?
• Is your MRI going to be new or refurbished?
• Will your MRI be a 3T, 1. or lower field or extremity MRI unit?
• Are you planning on installing your MRI Magnet on a ground-floor slab on grade or an upper floor?
• Have you selected an Architect? Does the Architect have MRI Site buildout experience?
• Have you selected a builder/remodeler, and do they have MRI Site buildout experience?
• What are your thoughts, work to date, and understanding of the content we have provided in this section?
• Let's make sure we have addressed all your questions.
• What are your needs, impressions, and responses to our content regarding the containment of the 5 Gauss Field line?

I look forward to sharing additional information from my experience during our consultation. There is more to know about this topic.

• There is significant additional information and detail on the buildout of the RF shield in the MRI magnet room. What to avoid, what to insist on with Contractors and Sub Contractors, how the RF Shield Works, etc.
• What do you need to know about/discuss in the buildout and buildout of the MRI Control Room?
• What you need to know about the buildout and buildout of the MRI Equipment Room.
• What you need to know about the buildout and buildout of the MRI dressing and locker room space.

More information on MRI Projects

MRI Magnet Selection

MRI Magnet Delivery

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