An MR/CT compatible neonatal incubator

INTRODUCTION Neonatal imaging is of growing importance as the effects of premature birth are becoming better controlled and babies are surviving from earlier gestational ages. Prematurity can often lead to consequences for the CNS and other parts of the body and MR is highly relevant for imaging this population as it is non-invasive and so allows follow up scanning. There have been two main approaches to imaging neonates who require monitoring and preservation of temperature away from the care unit: a) a dedicated MR system on the intensive care unit where care and support can be easily provided. b) a neonatal incubator with full support equipment to transport the baby to a central hospital based MR system. A number of prototype incubators and a commercial system have previously been reported but all these systems have one or more disadvantages in terms of cost, complexity and patient visibility during imaging. We report here recent progress on developing a simple neonatal transport MR and CT compatible incubator and monitoring system which aims to overcome some of these limitations.