Inside STAT: The human brain in ‘unprecedented’ detail

(BRIAN L. EDLOW, M.D./MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL)

Want to get the most detailed brain images ever recorded? An MRI that has a 7-tesla magnet — versus the 0.5 T to 3 T magnets that are usually in MRI machines — might help. In addition, the images are of the brain of a 58-year-old woman, who died of viral pneumonia and whose brain could therefore be imaged for hours on end and could stay perfectly immobile. Top these qualities off with state-of-the-art software that can direct the machine to optimize a host of parameters, from a tiny bleed to swelling gray and white matter. Read more about the images — and see the MRIs in action — from STAT’s Sharon Begley here.