Hospital Launches Its New MRI Machine

Moapa Valley Progress

The staff of Mesa View Regional Hospital (MVRH) in Mesquite welcomed members of the community on Thursday, Nov. 9, as they introduced their latest tool in providing a more comfortable experience for patients having magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans done.

“We are really excited about this,” MVRH CEO Patty Holden said. “We have been working on this a while and look forward to the benefits this machine will provide our patients.”
After three years and $1.5 million, MVRH patients can now experience technology that is proclaiming to be a “People Friendly MRI.”

The new Toshiba 1.5 TESLA Vantage Titan large bore MRI scanner boasts four benefits. For one, it is tremendously quieter than previous machines, which will allow for patients to focus on relaxing. It also has a larger bore, which will allow more comfort for patients that may have had difficulty fitting in previous MRI machines before.

But the two most important features that will assist patients and doctors with the new machine is that it cuts testing times nearly in half and it can be used with or without contrast, a chemical that can have some adverse affects to some patients.

With this, MVRH will be able to provide enhanced MRI exams that were only available at hospitals in Las Vegas or St. George, such as non-contrast vascular and arterial, most abdominal tests, the hips area, angiography of lower extremities and even breast exams.

MRI machines like the Titan do not use x-rays or radiation, but rather a strong magnetic field, radio waves and a computer.
“The image quality produced by this is simply amazing,” said Roger Silva, the Director of Imaging Services at MVRH as he showed examples of the difference from older machines to the Titan. “This will make things a lot better.”