MRI: A safe scanning procedure

Alhamdulillah hasil dari MRI yg dibuat adikku tiada sebarang penyakit bersyukur pada Mu Ya Allah.

tapi...adikku akan dibawa ke Hospital Pantai untuk ujian seterusnya...

The Doctor Says

By Dr MILTON LUM

Magnetic resonance imaging is a safe way to scan a patient.

ONE of the medical advances that I saw developing right before my eyes was magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). When I was undergoing post specialty qualification training in Britain, I was privileged to witness the workings of MRI, which was then used in a research centre.

The improvements in technology and production, together with the decrease in pricing in the past two decades, have lead to increased availability of MRI to the general population in many countries.

MRI scans use magnetic fields and radio waves to produce images of different parts of the body. There is no exposure to radiation, unlike in radiography, which uses X-rays. Studies have not reported risks to humans from MRI. This means that an MRI scan is a safe procedure.
Scan me: Metallic objects must be removed from a patient’s body because magnetic fields are used in the MRI scanner.

Water is the main component of the human body, and is made up of hydrogen and oxygen atoms. At the centre of the hydrogen atom is a particle called a proton, which is very sensitive to magnetic fields.

The MRI scanner is composed of a large tube which contains several powerful magnets and a motorised surface on which the patient lies.

All the protons are pulled into the same direction when placed inside the magnetic field of the MRI scanner, in the same manner that a magnet pulls the needle of a compass. Radio signals sent by the MRI scanner pull the protons out of position. This leads to the transmission of a radio signal by each proton, thereby providing information about it.

Individual protons do not provide useful information, just like a single pixel on a television monitor is a only dot. As millions of pixels produce images, so do millions of protons produce detailed images of body parts. The images produced are stored in a computer system.