I've wondered if one was more accurate than the other, I don't know the
answer.
I had an unfortunate incident with the rear window of a Toyota and woke
up laying in the street with paramedics removing my clothes and loading
me in an ambulance. While laying in the ER for 2 hours getting my face
reattached, I mentioned to the doctors that the first 2 fingers of both
of my hands were tingling a lot. They scheduled me for an MRI, and
asked me if I was claustrophobic and if tight spaces and noisy machines
would bother me. I told them it wouldn't bother me a bit, since I've
spent a lot of time working in a garage laying under cars. The MRI took
about 30 minutes, and the machine does make a lot of noise. I couldn't
imagine what would be inside of a precision electromagnetic machine that
would make that much banging noise. About 6 months later I was still
having back pain so I went to a back doctor and he scheduled me for a
back MRI and a neck MRI. I called imaging places and scheduled
appointments. It seems that all or most private imaging companies use
the open MRI. They strap me down on the table for the back MRI and tell
me it will take about 1.5 hours. I told them that my last MRI only took
30 minutes and they said that was the difference between closed MRI and
open MRI. Because it took so long I had to come back for a separate
appointment for only the neck, that time it took a little under an hour.
I've seen photos of different open MRI configurations. The one that I
went into had lower and upper pieces shaped like a short cylinder, a
tuna fish can so to speak, each piece about 4 feet in diameter and the 2
pieces about 1.5 feet apart. They slid me between them and raised me up
until my nose was almost touching the top part. The sides were open but
I was not supposed to move so I couldn't look out either side. That
machine made a lot of unusual noises too, but instead of odd banging it
was mostly different humming noises like you would expect from motors
and transformers.
I don't know any other differences between "open" and "closed" MRI. If
I had a choice I would choose closed just because it is faster.
> As SOON as anybody says "...get an MRI.", it is YOUR responsibility
> [ aka Patient Education ] to pipe up and TELL them [any lie you wish]
> you HAVE to have an OPEN machine. PERIOD. Be the problem your
> "shoulders", girth, overall size [generally they will recognize that.]
> or claustrophobia [read below], the actual procedure is up to you !!
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