To Quix confusing mra report

[willowwoman7]

My husband had an mra to rule out brain stem stroke. What does this mean: "MRA of the neck is limited by motion artifact. There is significant misregistration present." Can you help?

[biowham]

truelove--there are different ways of imaging the vessels, but the most common is to use a contrast injection to do it. I think it's gadolinium. It shows up the vasculature really nicely, so if you've got anything in there--like a bad "wad" of vessels (AVM, or arteriovenous malformations) or an aneurysm or a blockage--it will show up quite nicely.

Bio

[truelove47]

Thank you for the explaination. This was willowwoman7 question, but i jumped in because

I wanted to know about the mra with contrast

Bio  Thank you so much

Be well

Linda

[biowham]

Sorry...should also just have defined the terms.

MRA = magnetic resonance angiography. For veins, there is also MRV, magnetic resonance venography.

MRI = magnetic resonance imaging

[biowham]

MRA differs from MRI. They both rely on magnetic resonance, but MRI images nonvascular tissues and contrasts them well from one another. MRA is specific to examining the vasculature (blood vessels; angio = vessels). They usually use a contrast dye to trace blood flow (or its absence) through the arteries in different tissues, although there are some fancier MR methods of imaging the vasculature (like TOF, which stands for "time of flight").

At any rate, your husband moved too much for the radiologist to read the findings, and he needs a redo. I'm not sure why they were using MRA to look for stroke? Are they just looking to see if he's got any other blockages?

Bio

[Sailorsong]

MRA stand for "magnetic resonance angiography" which is just another term for MRI "magnetic resonance image".  In other words you have an MRA in order to get an MRI.

Dennis

[truelove47]

What is a MRA?   I had one for passing out and was unconsious.
Neuro sent me for one and also an mri.  Orders were sent by fax to family doc.

Neuro is 100 miles away and mri center is where i live.

Of course by the time I got to see Neuro, I forgot to ask what it was for.

Thanks  
Linda

[jensequitur]

Motion artifact means that he was moving around, and it was hard for the radiologist to tell what was going on.  See if they'll schedule him for one with his neck tied down.