About to Get an MRI? Read This On What to Expect

If you’ve ever been in an accident that damaged internal organs or have been told that you should get an MRI, CAT scan, or other diagnostic imaging done for an illness or to confirm a diagnosis, you’ve probably been in an diagnostic imaging centers. Being in diagnostic imaging centers can often be scary, not knowing what they might find, but these centers do good and important work in keeping us healthy and often catching illnesses, like cancer, in early stages. In many cases, an MRI scan or a CAT scan give doctors and patients enough lead time to start treatment early and save a person’s life. So don’t feel too apprehensive going into diagnostic imaging centers — that visit could be the one to really change your life for the better. Imaging services cover a wide array of radiology tests and have become incredibly sophisticated and advanced.
Tell Me About MRI’s
You might have heard the term bandied about but not known exactly what it meant or what an MRI scan actually did. “MRI” stands for magnetic resonance imaging. It’s used in the field of radiology to procure images of the body and its physiological processes, both if the body is healthy and if it’s diseased. Strong magnetic fields, radio waves, and field gradients comprise the images produced by MRI scans. The 3-D images that the MRI machine produces can be viewed from multiple and varying angles.
There are about 30 million MRI scans that take place every year in the United States. A little over 20% (6.6 million) of these scans are just head scans. They can be as short as a half hour and as long as two hours.
The radiologists will give you detailed instructions for how to prep for your MRI, what will happen during, and if you need to do anything specific afterwards. It’s common for them to ask you to abstain from eating two or more hours before the test, but other than that, there are generally not many special things you have to do beforehand.
During the test, you should lie still — the machine will be taking a series of pictures during this time. Each series of pictures will take up to around 15 minutes and the test can be anywhere between two to six series worth before it’s completed. If you’re pregnant — especially if you’re in the first three months of pregnancy — an MRI scan will not be done on you, but if the circumstances are dire, it’s possible.
Why Might I Need to Get an MRI?
If a head MRI is conducted, it can often detect abnormalities that are occurring, such as signs of a brain aneurysm, a stroke, tumors, or spine inflammations. Diagnosing multiple sclerosis, seeing bleeding of the brain, and spinal cord evaluations can also be done with an MRI. They’re also useful for viewing the heart, especially viewing its structure, and detecting heart defects.
Injury or abnormalities with your intern organs (for example, within the stomach) or gathering information about your joint structure, soft tissues, and bones can also be garnered from an MRI scan. It’s most often used to detect tumors.
What Else Should I Know?
The MRI scan should be painless with few to no side effects. You’ll be strapped into a table that moves into the MRI machine and instructed to lie still during the course of the procedure and staff will be present throughout the entire procedure. There are ways to communicate with them, should you need to — usually in the form of a buzzer to avoid movement.
MRI’s are quite expensive, although insurance can often help here, often covering the majority of the costs, if not all of it. But be prepared to spend a few thousand dollars on the scan upfront. There are no known dangers of an MRI scan, though if you have metal anywhere in your body, you should notify the staff beforehand, because of the magnetic forces.
With all this information in hand, don’t be uneasy when entering diagnostic imaging centers — the experience is overall fairly easy and relatively low-risk.