[Christmas article: From diagnosis to delicacy: using MR and DXA scanners to roast Christmas duck]

The holiday season poses a unique challenge for hospital staff, especially on night shifts, who must juggle their duties with preparing a festive Christmas meal. This study investigates the novel idea of using hospital MRI scanners to cook duck breasts during shifts. MRI scanners, which use magnetic fields and radiofrequency (RF) pulses for imaging, also generate heat, potentially suitable for cooking.

To explore this hypothesis, we performed DXA scans on duck breasts to determine tissue composition and identify any metallic objects, such as shotgun pellets, that could pose risks in the MRI environment. We examined the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR), which measures RF energy absorbed by tissue. Given the similar water content between duck muscle and human tissue, we used human SAR values for our calculations.

Our findings suggest that with careful adjustment of RF amplitude, magnetic field strength, and scan duration, it is theoretically possible to cook a duck breast to an internal temperature of 62°C within a standard 8-hour hospital shift.

While the idea of using MRI scanners for cooking is intriguing, patient care must remain the priority. The limited availability of MRI scanners for culinary use may limit its practical application. Further research could explore cooking other holiday dishes and address logistical challenges for broader implementation.

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