The first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system of its kind in the UK, which is set to aid in the identification of new ways to assess the risk of heart disease, has been installed at London’s Royal Brompton Hospital.

Royal Brompton Hospital is the UK’s largest specialist heart and lung medical centre and is managed by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

Developed by Siemens Healthineers, MAGNETOM Cima.X’s gradient strength will facilitate novel heart scanning techniques intended to enable the earlier treatment and prevention of heart disease.

Using diffusion-weighted imaging, the MRI system defines the micro-architecture of the heart in three-dimensions at a microscopic level, an evolution that is anticipated to help identify new ways to assess the risk of heart attacks, congenital heart disease and cardiomyopathy.

Royal Brompton has already undertaken a research program using diffusion cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), a technique that reveals the arrangement of heart cells and depicts the full architecture of the heart muscle.

The arrival of MAGNETOM Cima.X is expected to further  research, enabling clinicians at the hospital to combine the system’s diffusion technique with artificial intelligence (AI) and computer modelling to establish the relationship between the complex heart microstructure and how the heart contracts and pumps blood.

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Royal Brompton also intends to evaluate the application of new display techniques of the heart using holograms three-dimensional visualisation with virtual reality.

The arrival of the MRI system at Royal Brompton comes in celebration of a two decades’ old partnership between the hospital and Siemens Healthineers.

Commenting on the partnership, Dudley Pennell, director of the Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Unit at Royal Brompton and professor of cardiology at the National Heart and Lung Institute said: “That we are now able to offer our patients five CMR scanners, and conduct 20,000 scans a year across our partnership, is a huge credit to our long partnership with Siemens Healthineers.”

The UK’s MRI systems market was valued at $42.7m in 2023 and will reach a valuation of $90.7m in 2033, as per GlobalData’s Market Size & Growth database.

Elsewhere in MRI, Zydus Lifesciences recently announced a strategic investment in Promaxo, which develops low-field MRI systems.