Modern medical science does not stand still, every day there are improved means of not only treatment, but also diagnostics. Today, one of the most accurate and safe diagnostic methods is considered to be magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI. This type of examination has proved its effectiveness more than once, but the debate about whether MRI is harmful to health does not subside. To understand how justified such fears are, you need to learn more about this diagnostic method.
What is special about MRI?
Magnetic resonance imaging is the latest diagnostic method. Using a similar technique, human organs are scanned that are not available for other types of examinations.
Most often, MRI is prescribed to determine tumor processes, diagnose the condition of the spine, as well as visualize the brain and spinal cord.
Prior to the emergence and widespread use of MRI, such diseases and pathologies were determined using x-rays, as well as ultrasound methods. But if you can still doubt whether MRI is harmful to health, then in the case of an X-ray examination, the answer is clear and the damage to health is very significant. And the ultrasound method is often not too informative and the result is too dependent on the apparatus and qualifications of the uzist.
That is why in many cases the use of MRI for diagnosis allows timely detection of pathology and immediately begin treatment.
How does magnetic tomography work?
The essence of the method is that a person is exposed to a magnetic field created by a special diagnostic unit. Magnetic waves cause the hydrogen atoms that are contained in every cell of any human organ to resonate or oscillate. Such vibrations can be recorded and visualized using special equipment and computer programs.
Preparation for MRI consists in placing the patient in a special unit for diagnosis. The process of MRI itself can take a long time - up to two hours, depending on the severity of the diagnosis. The minimum diagnostic time is 40 minutes.
How is the diagnosis?
Despite the fact that the question of whether MRI is harmful to health comes from many patients, almost no one refuses the proposed diagnosis using this method. The fact is that very often with the help of tomography the presence and severity of tumor processes or brain diseases are established. And among all the available methods, MRI is the most accurate and painless.
Tomography does not have a harmful effect on human health: the effect of magnetic waves is not more sensitive than radiation from a mobile phone or microwave. Nevertheless, only a doctor can prescribe a referral for diagnosis; you should not do self-examination yourself.
Special preparation for MRI is not required. The patient, having received a referral from the attending physician, comes to the diagnostic room and follows all the instructions of the specialists.
In order to create magnetic radiation, frequencies and directions are needed, the patient is placed in a special installation - a tomograph. This is a kind of tunnel in which a person is in the most stationary position. At the same time, magnetic waves act on it, the image is processed programmatically and displayed on a computer.
After completing the procedure, the patient does not need rest or hospitalization and can go home alone.
Contraindications
Despite the fact that the question of whether MRI of the brain and other organs is harmful, experts give a negative answer, the procedure has a number of absolute and relative contraindications.
Absolute contraindications excluding the use of magnetic resonance imaging include:
- The patient has a pacemaker, pacemaker or other artificial stimulator of the work of internal organs.
- The presence of implants in the skeletal system, namely: artificial joints, knitting needles, plates.
- The presence of dental crowns made of metal.
- The presence of shrapnel wounds with the probability that some of the fragments could not be removed.
- The presence of tattoos, the paint of which contains metal particles.
These contraindications can be summarized: if there are metal particles in the human body, then the use of MRI is strictly prohibited. The metal will react to magnetic attraction, as a result of which the diagnosis can be not only incorrect, but also life-threatening to the patient.
Relative contraindications to the use of MRI are the presence in the patient of various kinds of mental disorders associated with confined space. The patient's task is to remain motionless for quite a long time in a closed tunnel of the tomograph. If his psyche is not ready for this, the diagnostic result may be erroneous.
The need to use MRI in this situation can be justified only by the attending physician. If the patient's health condition allows, magnetic tomography can be replaced with another method; if not, prior consultation with a psychologist or psychotherapist is necessary to convince the patient of the importance of such a study.
Is MRI harmful to health? No, it’s not harmful. Radiation from a tomograph is no more harmful than from a mobile phone, and cannot be harmful. But to use this type of diagnosis should only be prescribed by a doctor and follow all the recommendations and instructions of specialists.