What Does an MRI Find?

Feb 16, 2015

When you’re looking for a Jonesboro MRI test, you’re probably wondering what the machine is going to do to you, why you need one – and exactly what your doctor is hoping to find.

The MRI is quite different than your typical X-ray. Most of us have been through an X-ray, which is found in practically every doctor’s office – from your podiatrist to your chiropractor or pediatrician. Whenever there is something abnormal in the structure of your body, the X-ray will usually find it. By taking an X-ray photograph, the doctors can see inside of your body and discover the places where bones aren’t aligned, where they are bent, or held together in a faulty way in the wake of an injury.

But sometimes, that’s not enough. If you’re experiencing pain, or if you were in an accident, there may be nothing that shows up on the X-ray machine. In that case, you’ll have one of two options – go about your daily business and try to forget about it, or get an MRI.

The MRI scans your body not with the use of radiation producing X-rays, but with an electromagnetic field. These are created with coils of wire and large magnets, which, when oscillated extremely fast, are able to create images in three dimensions throughout any part of your body. These pictures can help doctors identify injuries to soft tissue that don’t show up in a standard X-ray.
MRI Machine | AICA Jonesboro
MRI machines are large and expensive – around $3 million dollars. Compare that to an X-ray machine which is usually less than $100,000. This means that not every medical office has an MRI. If you would like to get one, you’ll have to find the right practice or clinic that has one on hand, or can send you to one.

There are multiple styles of MRI machine: closed and open. A closed MRI machine consists of a bed and a very large tube that you could say resembles a donut; the table fits inside of this tube and the patient lies down to be scanned, in a process that lasts anywhere from 25 minutes to about 45 minutes. The open MRI machine doesn’t look at all like a donut. Rather, it’s open on it’s sides, and is good for anyone who might feel trapped by the closed version.

Information Over and Above an X-Ray

Here are some of the things that an MRI can find in your body:

  • Tumors
  • Internal bleeding
  • Infections
  • Nerve damage
  • Heart valves
  • Coronary blood vessels
  • Stroke damage
  • Heart and lung damage
  • Breast cancer
  • Prostate cancer
  • Organ damage or abnormality
  • Arthritis inside joints
  • Torn ligaments, tendons
  • Bone tumors
  • Spinal stenosis
  • Disc ruptures and bulges

This is the short list.

It’s quite amazing everything that the MRI can find – and possibly more amazing to know all of the things that can go wrong in a human body.

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