AUTHOR=Islam Omar , Lin Amy W. , Bharatha Aditya 

TITLE=Potential application of ultra-low field portable MRI in the ICU to improve CT and MRI access in Canadian hospitals: a multi-center retrospective analysis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=Volume 14 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2023.1220091

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2023.1220091

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=To highlight the value of Portable MRI in ICU and to recommend use case scenarios for portable MRI in ICU patients that may increase capacity for fixed CT and MRI units. Urgent neuroimaging is commonly required in ICU. Typically, ICU patients are transported to Radiology for assessment in fixed CT and MRI units. Portable MRI use in Canadian ICU settings offers the potential advantages of reduced transport risk, earlier diagnosis, improved triaging, as well as the ability to perform frequent re-imaging at the bedside. This frees up time on fixed CT and MRI units, leading to enhanced capacity to perform CT and MRI on other patients. Portable MRI use case scenarios in Canadian institutions have not been established and potential beneficial effect on wait times has not been analyzed.A retrospective semi-quantitative descriptive analysis was performed using all ICU neuroimaging requisitions (CT and MRI) over a 12-month period between January and