Region's first MRI center for pets
opens on biomedical campus

Cutting-edge medical imaging technology has gone to the dogs. And the cats and other domestic animals for that matter.

The Iams Company officially opened the region’s first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) center at NC State’s Centennial Biomedical Campus in a ceremony on Aug. 24.

The 3,348-square-foot Iams Pet Imaging Center is the area’s first MRI facility dedicated solely for use on pets and domestic animals. It will provide area veterinarians with state-of-the-art diagnostic tools – comparable to those used on humans – and help doctors detect and begin treatment of hard-to-diagnose health conditions earlier and more accurately.

The Iams Company, which provides pet food and pet-care products to cats and dogs, is the first corporate partner to locate a facility on NC State’s Centennial Biomedical Campus, a 70-acre research and development “neighborhood” anchored by the university’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

Veterinarians and technicians working at the new Iams Pet Imaging Center will be employed by the Iams Company and will also have clinical faculty status at the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Teaching Hospital.

“This is an exciting development for NC State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine,” said Dr. Warwick Arden, dean of the college. “The technology will allow more rapid and accurate diagnosis of medical conditions in horses and companion animals, and will provide a valuable instructional tool for our students. I believe it is an excellent example of corporate-academic collaborations that will set the tone for further development of the Centennial Biomedical Campus.”

“We are pleased to be partnering with North Carolina State University to make state-of-the-art technology, that can truly enhance pet well-being, more readily available,” said Jeffrey P. Ansell, president of The Iams Company. “Iams is in the pet well-being business, so this is an exciting way to bring local veterinarians a better method to diagnose conditions in pets while we provide the MRI experience to the veterinarians of tomorrow.”

In addition to being a powerful new diagnostic resource, the center also provides a key opportunity for non-clinical research, according to Ian Robertson, assistant professor of radiology at the college. “MRI not only provides anatomical information in the form of images, but also functional information about body physiology. This resource will greatly assist researchers and will complement the developing genomics program at the Centennial Biomedical Campus,” he explained.

The facility at NC State will be the second Iams Pet Imaging Center, with a third scheduled to open in San Francisco in early 2005. The company opened its first center in Vienna, Va., in 2002. That center has become the world leader in pet MRI scans, based on nearly 3,000 case referrals. Pets have benefited from MRI’s ability to show conditions such as stroke and bursitis (tissue inflammation), conditions previously difficult or impossible to detect with traditional technology, such as x-rays. Pets can be referred to the Iams Pet Imaging Center by veterinarians in private practice as well as by clinicians at NC State’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital.

The new facility may be used for horses, too, Robertson notes. “With some customization, the center’s Siemens MRI unit will be able to image the lower limbs and skull, including the brain of anesthetized horses,” he said. “Equine magnetic resonance imaging is very new, but already the tremendous diagnostic potential is apparent.”

Centennial Biomedical Campus is an extension of NC State’s Centennial Campus. University, industry and government partners will work side by side on the new campus to develop new biomedical technologies that benefit animals and humans alike.

Posted August 26, 2004

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