Magnetic resonance Imaging
What is MRI?
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an imaging technique that uses a strong magnetic field and pulses of
radiofrequency energy to cause tissues to emit characteristic energy signals. The MRI computer converts the signal intensity to varying shades of grey in the image.
The main advantages of MRI versus the conventional X-Ray include:
- Higher sensitivity for subtle changes in soft tissue chemical properties
- The ability to acquire images in any plane desired
- Absence of ionizing radiation: this means that the MRI is a NO INVASIVE technique
Left: An X-Ray of a knee. You would be able to see a fracture but hard to see tussiue damage.
Right: an MRI which as you can see is much more detailed and diagnosis is alot clearer.
The MRI is now considered the GOLD STANDARD for:
- Intracranial disease (tumours, strokes, developmental disorders, cranial nerves disorders…)
- Brain infectious disease (meningitis)
- Spinal disease (Intervertebral disk degeneration, intramedullary neoplasia, nerve roots neoplasia…)
- middle/inner ear disease
Other applications include:
Deepen studies of complex anatomical regions as the hock joint
Detection of small changes in soft tissues in the abdominal cavity
What’s happened to my dog/cat during a scan?
- General light anaesthesia
- He/She will be positioned on a table in a tube-shaped or open gantry in which there is a constant strong magnetic field
- He/She will sleep while the veterinary surgeon will acquired the pictures
How long is the procedure?
It depends by
- the anatomical region to analyse
- what the vet has found and what he wants to investigate
Please click on the images below to see a few example cases of MRI Scanning.
