A GOOD QUALITY MRI: FACT OR FICTION?

 

 

This photo demonstrates how a patient is being positioned in a MRI Scanner.

 There is an alternative, an open MRI scanner for those patients who are claustrophobic.

I  want to share with the readers who have visited this orthopedic blog regarding the outcome of my decompression and fusion.  Not knowing all the inherent risks, I underwent a L4-L5 posterolateral spinal fusion and hemi-laminectomy,  autograft bone with pedicle screws and rod instrumentation, performed by an orthopedic surgeon at St. Jude Hospital, in December of  2010.  Immediately after this spine surgery, I began experiencing the worse bone pain and unusual dermatological outbreaks over my entire body that you could ever imagine.  

I had become suspicious that my surgeon failed in his attempts to perform a successful spine surgery to alleviate my pain.  As months went by, I felt that I didn't get honest answers or real help from this orthopedic surgeon.  I sought the medical advice from several other orthopedic surgeons, neurologists, rheumatologists, and an internal medicine specialist in Orange County. I had no options left except to return to pain management.

My pain level had increased from a five to a nine on a pain scale.  I experienced right numbness and tingling sensations every time I would ambulate a few blocks. During my office visit with the neurologist, the doctor performed nerve function tests on me checking for both motor and sensory reflexes.  They couldn't find what was wrong with me.  I was told to further obtain a detailed imaging of my spinal cord, discs, ligaments thus showing more in detail the soft tissue of my lumbar spine from T2 though the L5-S1 vertebral column. It was recommended that I undergo a T3 Tesla MRI to be done at a well known radiology imaging center. Tesla (T) is the unit of measurement quantifying the strength of a magnetic field.  Prior to the 3 Tesla Machine, the high-field standard was 1.5 Tesla.  This unique scanner generates a magnetic field that is twice the strength of 1.5 Tesla machines and 10 to 15 times the strength of low field or open MRI scanners.  The strong magnetic field produced by the 3T Magnetom MRI System yields exceptional anatomic detail in both the lumbar and cervical regions of the spine.  

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the 3 Tesla MRI is an encyclopedia.  This increased image clarity revealed by 3T is particularly beneficial for such pathological conditions involving the brain, spine and musculoskeletal system.  This reconstructed scanner is advantageous over the other MRI machines. I believe it is well worth researching which MRI diagnostic center that has the latest technology in its imaging machine to receive a higher quality testing procedure performed.  Most insurance companies will allow for such diagnostic testing and pay the same rate in its insurance reimbursement fees.  

Patients assume they are getting the same results from any MRI scanner but they are being mislead by their doctors. You need to insist on it.  On April 17, 2013, I was referred to the Newport Diagnostics Center in Newport Beach at their specific testing site. What is sets them apart from other centers is that they have a state of the art in magnetic imaging, known as the 3T Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging Machine. This scanner is considered to be a gold standard in the field of radiological imaging showing better quality in scanning for spinal tumors, pathological abnormalities and providing concise diagnostic information in all areas of spine imaging.  The 3T Magnetom scanner machine has a more finer detail in 3D sagittal and coronal reconstructions in both orthopedic and neurosurgery spinal imaging.

Your physician who is ordering this test may not know about it or not advise the patient and be sent to a less quality testing site. Unfortunately, you may possibly obtain less satisfactory results and quality in radiological scanning. It really makes a big difference in the quality of the radiological interpretation of the cervical or lumbar spine when it comes to preoperative surgical planning. 

 I am revealing my results of my Tesla  3T MRI report which unfortunately shows adjacent lumbar segment disease.

*Multilevel spondylosis with degenerative central canal stenosis moderately pronounced at the L3-L4 lumbar level.

*Multilevel foraminal stenosis moderately marked at L5-S1 on the right.

*L4-L5 postsurgical changes

*L5-S1 anterolisthesis

*Mild scoliosis