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MRI scanning is extremely useful in the healthcare industry. It helps give doctors a good idea for the line of treatment for a particular disease and its severity.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanning is a medical procedure used to investigate different problems inside the body with the help of magnets and radiofrequency waves that generates pictures and images on a computer screen.
Applications in Medical Diagnosis
The MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) procedure has various applications in the detection of several diseases and their medical diagnosis.
- Neuroimaging: MRI is very beneficial and is a recommended investigative procedure to detect neurological cancer. This is recommended because it is more sensitive than CT scans. MRI scans detect small tumors with higher visibility. It also gives a clear picture of the grey and white matter of the brain. This helps with the study of different neurological disorders like dementia, epilepsy, cerebrovascular diseases, and demyelinating diseases.
- Oncology: MRI is the best in the early detection of various cancers like breast cancer, prostate cancer, rectal cancer, and lung cancer. It helps the doctors in the diagnosis of the type of tumors and at what stage the disease is.
- Cardiovascular: It can assess different heart diseases. Common ones are myocardial ischemia, congenital heart diseases, myocarditis, vascular diseases, and cardiomyopathy. Though there are other useful imaging techniques like echocardiography and CT scans, MRI is more comprehensive.
- Musculoskeletal: MRI of the musculoskeletal system can detect different soft tissue tumors, joint and bone diseases, and spinal injuries and illnesses related to it. It gives the perfect image of all the conditions associated with bones and muscles, as well as spinal imaging.
Apart from these, it also helps in the detection of liver and gastrointestinal diseases. MRI scans can help in the assessment and detection of any lesion on the liver, pancreas, or other common bile ducts.
Advantages of MRI Scanning
- The primary benefit of MRI over other techniques is that it is non-surgical and non-invasive. It also does not use any harmful radiation.
- A better distinction of abnormalities
- It does not involve any pollution.
- MRI scanning procedure gives the highest degree of detailed images of soft-tissue inside the human body.
- MRI contrast agents do not cause any allergic reaction as compared to other imaging techniques when iodine-based substances are used for these techniques.
- It can easily create a countless number of images from any direction and orientation.
- One scan can cover more area of the human body than other imaging techniques.
- MRI has proved to be highly beneficial in diagnosing several deadly diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and neurological diseases so that doctors can plan their line of treatment.
Disadvantages of MRI Scanning
- The first and foremost disadvantage of MRI is that it is expensive. But express MRI can change this disadvantage into an advantage by offering you the best MRI scans at an affordable price with high-quality results.
- Sometimes it fails to find some cancers like microcalcifications dealing with breast cancer
- The patient has to lie down inside an enclosed machine. This may create a problem for claustrophobic people.
- A metal implant may pose a risk to the patient as the metal may get affected by the strong magnet of the MRI scanning unit.
- There’s a slight risk of an allergic reaction to the contrasting agent, or infection at the injection site.
- Claustrophobic patients often choose to get sedated, but there may be a slight risk with the sedation medication.
- Despite these disadvantages, the number of benefits outnumbers the problems.
MRI scans can create high-quality, detailed images of the human body and detect various diseases. MRI scanning at places like Express MRI has helped doctors diagnose and treat conditions at an early stage. This is a technological advancement that we all can benefit from. Detecting diseases at an early stage is vital when it comes to beating them!
Krystle Cook – the creator of Home Jobs by MOM – put her psychology degree on a shelf and dived into a pile of diapers and dishes instead. She is a wife and mother to two rambunctious boys, sweating it out in her Texas hometown. She loves cooking, DIY home projects, and family fun activities.
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