WHY DOES THE MAGNETIC RESONANCE SCARE? SOME FALSE MYTHS AND CONVICTIONS TO DISCREDIT
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The magnetic resonance in many patients cause severe states of anxiety and the reasons are various: there is who complains about claustrophobia, who indeed fears he/she may be “bombarded” by radioactive material, who knows he/she won’t be able to keep still during the test and lastly who already knows that he/she will not tolerate the loud noise. Together with MD Paolo Saggin, radiologist and ultrasonographer of San Francesco’s Clinic and Diagnostic Centre, we tried to get us some clarity on one of the most performed test to diagnose a wide variety of diseases because it permits to visualize internal organs with the skeleton and the joints.
“The magnetic resonance is a diagnostic procedure that produces detailed images using magnetic fields – MD Saggin explained -. The body of patient physically enters into the equipment through a tunnel, this for some patients represents a claustrophoby problem, actually with state of the art equipments this difficulty was overcome. How? At the Clinica San Francesco we use a state of the art equipment constituted by a tunnel with a wider diameter than 10 cm and shorter, we talk about 70 cm, furthermore the interior of this is well ventilated and illuminated. It is important to remember that it is not necessary to enter completely into the equipment if must be carried out a diagnosis of knee”.
Often you hear about “nuclear magnetic resonance”, so does exist a radioactive risk?
“No radioactive risk, the magnetic resonance, as we said, provides detailed images of human body using magnetic fields, without exposing the patient to ionizing radiations. It is defined “nuclear” because affects the atomic cores, particularly the precession (or rather “rotation”) of protons and cores spin, provided with magnetic moment and thanks to the use of contrast agent, that is a paramagnetic compound, this effect is increased. Thanks to the magnetic fields and the rotation of these cores is possible to fix the images of body parts analized. This process reconstructs a three-dimensional section of interested part and allows to find possible anomalies in the patient”.
Is a painful test?
“Absolutely not, if we exclude the puncture for agent contrast injection that is tolerable, may still some discomfort that it is right to report. During the test the noise is really load, but the patient is equipped with ear protections. For some patients often is difficult to keep still for a long time; in that case it is possible to intervene with a small sedation, as for the children”.
Can anyone undergo a magnetic resonance?
“Not everyone can undergo a resonance. I refer to the patients who have inside their body metal structures after operations, or other life-saving devices. No precaution or preparation is needed, it is important to remind the lactating mothers to sample sufficient milk for the following 24 hours from resonance, finally for some patients the treating physician can prescribe a preventive treatment to avoid allergic reactions to the agent contrast”.
