The SAFESCAN Target Scanner™ is designed specifically for MR Safety and alarms ONLY on ferromagnetic threat objects, providing an excellent second line of defense to help protect your MRI patients and your magnet from ferromagnetic accidents. (Dr. Emanuel Kanal at UPMC calls these threats "Public Enemy No. One").
The Target Scanner™ is achieving excellent marketplace acceptance, including by some of the world's finest hospitals and medical centers, because it is very sensitive, cost-effective, and easy to use. It is especially suited for MR Safety in busy hospital-based facilities, free-standing MRI centers, and mobile units.
Increasing Sensitivity/Detectability
A small non-radiating passive (i.e., DC) field is provided by the Target Scanner™, as this GREATLY INCREASES SENSITIVITY and DETECTABILITY.
The use of this DC field is important for finding small ferromagnetic threats which may have no inherent initial magnetization (that is, they have not been pre-magnetized). Non-premagnetized ferromagnetic threats, especially if they are small and “ferromagnetically-hard,” have a tendency to be missed with ferromagnetic detection systems which do not have their own independent magnetic field. The Target Scanner™ minimizes the possibility of false negative misses.
The DC field (100 G. at one inch – 1 G. at one foot) generated by the Target Scanner’s™ small DC magnet source is significantly less than that of a pacemaker DC magnet (such as from Medtronics) – and much less than the DC permanent magnets of several thousand Gauss used for ferromagnetic threat detection. And the Target Scanner’s™ DC field is many times less than the DC field of the MRI instrument itself (such as 15,000 – 30,000 G.) for which the patient has already been medically cleared.
It is emphasized that the Target Scanner’s™ DC field emits NO RF and does NOT radiate. It will NOT affect imaging quality in any way, nor will it erase credit cards or affect cell phones.
Advantages
The Target Scanner™ is especially suited for finding threat objects on the person of the patient, such as nail clippers, bobby pins, cell phones, etc., alarming ONLY on ferromagnetic threats. In several seminars, Dr. Kanal demonstrated that with proper usage a single staple can be found.
The signal being detected by any ferromagnetic detection system diminishes as the cube of the distance. This law of physics becomes very important when searching for small ferromagnetic threat objects. For instance, the signal being detected at 1/2 inch is 20 X 20 X 20 = 8,000 times larger than at 10 inches. (Certainly, the signal in a portal can be amplified, but, even with filters, etc., the noise is also amplified, which tends to nullify the signal amplification.)
When the Target Scanner™ can be positioned close to a ferromagnetic threat object, it is the most sensitive ferromagnetic detection product for MR Safety on the market; and, when used as indicated, it is more sensitive than ANY portal from any vendor (including our own portal products).
An additional advantage is that the Target Scanner™ is ideal for patients on gurneys and stretchers. Current “MRI-safe” gurneys and wheelchairs, as well as the MRI carriage, contain ferromagnetic components. These typically include the wheel bearings, and, with the MRI carriage, the rim around the bed frame. These ferromagnetic components trigger an alarm when the gurney, wheel chair, or MRI carriage passes through an entry-style 48" portal. This problem for patients on stretchers, gurneys, and the MRI carriage itself who undergo ferromagnetic screening with an entry-style portal is circumvented by the Target Scanner™, since it alarms only on close ferromagnetic threats. Therefore, it does not alarm on distant wheel bearings or the bed-frame rim when the patient is scanned. The Target Scanner™, then, is ideal not only for ambulatory patients, but for patients on stretchers, who may be unconscious.
The Target Scanner™ is properly used as a double-check safety precaution after the patient has been medically cleared to enter the magnet room / Zone IV.
