The LSU System received a unique tool Tuesday at its Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
The research center’s new $2.3 million state-of-the-art magnetic resonance imaging machine is the only one of its kind used for academic research in the South.
MRI is the process of capturing images inside the body with a powerful magnet instead of radiation that can cause cancer in the body, said Dr. Steven Smith, Pennington Inpatient Unit director.
The Signa EXCITE 3-Tessla High Definition system looks like a giant donut that slides over study participants who lie horizontally.
As soon as mid-February, students who undergo Pennington diabetes studies will receive state-of-the-art imaging without having to travel off-site or receive a biopsy.
“This is as big as you can buy off the shelf,” Smith said.
Hospitals normally use MRI machines to diagnose diseases. But Pennington researchers hope to understand how effective their treatments are on study participants with slower metabolism – a condition that precedes Type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 to 95 percent of all diabetes cases. And the percentage of young Americans that will develop it is growing.
“One in eight of your LSU class will develop Type 2 diabetes,” Smith said.
Pennington researchers will first examine the body metabolism of young people with a family history of diabetes. The researchers’ goal is to see if they can speed up their metabolism to prevent Type 2.
Researchers already know from previous studies that an increase in physical activity and change in one’s diet can reduce Type 2 development by 60 percent.
But they hope to develop therapies and treatments for further prevention.
Complications of diabetes such as strokes, heart attacks and kidney failures killed 73,249 Americans in 2002, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The federal Department of Defense bought the $2.3 million piece of equipment from General Electric for Pennington. The Pennington Biomedical Research Foundation, a tax-exempt charitable organization that supports the research center, paid $700,000 for the equipment’s installation, which includes its programming and engineering.
The Department of Defense – which has funded Pennington studies for 13 years – funds the application of technologies that can increase soldiers’ energy production. The diabetes studies look at body metabolism which may present ways to increase energy.
“A soldier needs to generate [energy] to run with a 90-pound backpack,” Smith said.
GE holds about 60 percent of the MRI market share, said Jimmy Asaro, GE Healthcare account manager.
Technical and clinical support of the MRI machine should cost Pennington about $400,000 per year.