![]() ![]() (According to GE Healthcare, a manufacturer of the machines, that life span is 12.8 years.) In 2015, there were roughly 12,000 machines in the U.S., making MRIs one of the biggest helium consumers in the world, far above balloon stores. Mahesh estimates that an MRI machine uses 10,000 liters of liquid helium over its life span. “It’s an essential commodity.”Īt any point, an MRI machine contains about 2,000 liters of liquid helium, though suppliers need to replenish any helium that boils off. “Helium is how the magnet continuously exists,” Mahesh said. Pumped inside an MRI magnet, helium lets the current travel resistance-free. That’s where helium comes in: With a boiling point of minus 452 degrees Fahrenheit, liquid helium is the coldest element on Earth. Keeping an MRI’s magnetic current superconductive requires extreme cold. ![]() (Marcus Brandt / dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images file) MRI scanner at Altona Children's Hospital in Hamberg, Germany, Au. Pulses of radio waves then tell the machine’s sensors which tissues are where, and the machine renders its image. When someone lies stock-still inside the tube-shaped magnetic field, their body’s atoms align with strong magnetic currents. Instead of relying on X-rays, which emit trace amounts of radiation to peer inside the body, MRIs use magnetic fields and radio waves. The 3D images, experts say, are irreplaceable. “It’s central to many things we do in modern medicine.” MRIs help doctors diagnose brain tumors, strokes, spinal cord injuries, liver diseases and cancer. Scott Reeder, chief of MRI at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “You get these sharp images, and you can distinguish soft tissues,” said Dr. The massive machines provide high-resolution images that allow doctors to see details in organs, bones and tissue that may not show up on X-rays. MRI, short for magnetic resonance imaging, has been a staple of health care since the 1980s. ![]() But without an end in sight for the helium shortage, the future of MRI remains uncertain. ![]() They have seen helium costs rise at an alarming rate, though - possibly up to 30%, Kornbluth guessed. Hospitals haven’t canceled patients’ MRIs or shut down machines yet. “We’re probably not blowing up balloons in the gift shop anymore.” who contracts with helium suppliers for some 4,000 hospitals. “Helium is on allocation for sure,” said Donna Craft, a regional construction manager for Premier Inc. These suppliers are prioritizing the health care industry by reducing helium allotments to less essential customers. helium suppliers are rationing the element, said Phil Kornbluth, president of Kornbluth Helium Consulting. Although the facility could resume operations any day, the war in Ukraine has, for the most part, stopped trade between the two countries. An enormous new facility in eastern Russia was supposed to supply nearly one-third of the world’s helium, but a fire last January derailed the timeline. was counting on Russia to ease the tight supply. This is especially true in the U.S., where a Texas-based federal helium reserve is dwindling as the government tries transferring ownership to private markets. Helium has been a volatile commodity for years. “Especially now with the geopolitical situation.” “Helium has become a big concern,” said Mahadevappa Mahesh, professor of radiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Baltimore. But helium - a nonrenewable element found deep within the Earth’s crust - is running low, leaving hospitals wondering how to plan for a future with a much scarcer supply. An MRI can’t function without some 2,000 liters of ultra-cold liquid helium keeping its magnets cool enough to work. Strange as it sounds, the lighter-than-air element that gives balloons their buoyancy also powers the vital medical diagnostic machines. A global helium shortage has doctors worried about one of the natural gas’s most essential, and perhaps unexpected, uses: MRIs. ![]()
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