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 PHOENIX (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Every photographer knows it's difficult to take a clear picture if your subject won't sit still. For doctors, clear images are not only essential tools for diagnosing patients, but critical road maps that guide them through surgery. Now a new invention is helping doctors get the clearest images possible.
Charles Cederholm is a prisoner in his own body. Parkinson's disease has left him with everything from tremors to paralysis. "I have problems trying to move, I have problems eating, problems trying to get dressed," he says. "I have a lot of pain that goes along with it."
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Now, Cederholm and his wife have hope in the form of a brain surgery. But first doctors must take an MRI scan of his brain.
 Standard MRIs don't work for everyone. Parkinson's patients like Cederholm often can't lie still enough for the machine to do its job.
"When we're dealing with critical patients or trauma patients, motion is always a concern," Carol Johnston, an MRI technologist at Barrow Neurological Institute/St. Joseph's Medical Center in Phoenix, tells Ivanhoe.
Motion can cause blurred MRIs. For Cederholm, blurred images could keep him from the surgery he needs. Now, there's something new called the PROPELLER MRI. It allows doctors to track the movement of the patient during the scan and reduce it in the image.
The new technology can help Alzheimer's patients and fidgety children. It can also help doctors get very detailed scans of stroke patients in less time, so patients avoid more damage.
 PROPELLER MRIs are now being used at several hundred hospitals around the world. Despite the sophistication of this new equipment, PROPELLER, which stands for "Periodically Rotated Overlapping ParallEL Lines with Enhanced Reconstruction," scans cost the same as traditional MRIs. In fact, they can actually save money because patients don't have to go back for as many re-takes.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
If you would like more information, please contact:
Kimberly Lodge, Dir. Of Public Relations
St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center
350 W. Thomas Rd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85013
(602) 406-3000
http://www.stjosephs-phx.org
kimberly.lodge@chw.edu
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