The study of problems in daily quality control for magnetic resonance imaging at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital

Abstract

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a non-radiation examination that can provide detailed images of organs. Before daily use, the MRI should be performed the quality control (QC) to prevent malfunctions and problems occurring before operating and during scanning. Therefore, quality inspection and quality control are very important. The purpose of this study was to check the quality and the readiness of 1.5T MRI of Siemens AERA 1.5T at the Department of Radiology, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital from January to December 2020. The collected data were divided into 2 groups; the first was the data of Helium fill level, Center frequency, Primary water temperature and primary water flow and the second was the abnormalities or problems of system. The first group’s results found that the helium fill level, center frequency, and primary water flow passed. But the primary water temperature did not pass the criteria. There was 1.5% of the temperature below 9.0 °C. The second group’s results demonstrated a total of 9 incidents, 4 incidents (44.4%) of the radiologists solved, and 5 incidents (55.6%) of the machine engineer correction. In conclusion, the quality control of the MRI system is essential as well as radiologists are the key persons to perform the quality control process. It can identify the problems and have more chances to correct these obstacles before serious issues occur.