When her doctor called to say she needed to have an MRI exam, Sharron Knight came unglued.  “I’m very claustrophobic,” says Sharron, “so when they called, I immediately went into shock mode.” 

Sharron is typical of many people who do not like the traditional MRI experience.  Sliding into the cylinder of a ‘closed’ bore system is confining, uncomfortable, and for some, a frightening prospect.

She recalls, “I told them it had to be an open MRI.  I said, ‘I don’t care if the machine is in China, I’ll go wherever there is one.’”

Fortunately for Sharron, one of Philips newest products – the Panorama High-Field Open MRI – was just five miles away.

Struggling to cope

At 68, Sharron Knight has had some medical difficulty with her legs.  When an X-ray of her spine indicated possible degenerative disc disease, her doctor ordered an MRI for further clarification.  For Sharon, this was a scary proposition.  “I’ve been in several closed MRIs before,” she says, “and they are just awful, miserable – I simply panic.  It’s like you’re in a casket – you’re entombed.”

“You have to understand,” she adds, “I’m a large woman and with the closed MRI I kept asking, ‘Is there a safety door? – is there a way to open it if I get stuck?’  Nobody would ever answer me.  Some people don’t care, they’ll crawl into anything and it doesn’t matter, but other people like me can’t do that.”

Aware of her option for an open MRI, Sharron insisted her doctor schedule this next exam at the closest location with an ‘open’ system. 

Coincidence brings Sharron to Philips

“I was at Desert Medical Imaging a couple of weeks before my MRI to have an Ultrasound on my legs and got to talking with the tech about the exam I was going to have.  I said I was going to have to go down the valley because that’s where the nearest open system was.  She said, ‘Well we have a brand new open system right here’ and when she showed it to me I thought, ‘I can get into this one.’”

The system Sharron was looking at was the new Philips Panorama High-Field Open (HFO) MRI system, in use for 15 months at Desert Medical Imaging’s (DMI) Palm Springs facility.  The Panorama HFO offers almost 360° of wide ‘open’ space instead of the ‘closed’ cylinder shape of a typical MRI.  And the openness of the system does not come at the expense of image quality – a significant drawback of earlier open designs.

“As soon as I saw it,” says Sharron, “I called my doctor’s office and told them they needed to be aware of the system here, and had them reschedule my exam to DMI.”

An anxiety-free experience

When exam time came Sharron didn't ask for sedation, because she'd already seen the Panorama HFO system and was comfortable with its open design. She remembers, “I knew that if I had to, I could stick my arms out the side – I could do whatever I had to do to get out on my own. So they put me in there and I kind of closed my eyes and it wasn't a bad experience at all. There was no anxiety at all.”

“If I have to have another MRI exam, I'll definitely go there because the machine is thoroughly open and everyone at DMI is very nice. They told me they got really good pictures – good images of my spine. But even if they hadn't, I know I can do it again.”

- November 2007

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