Does 3T make much of a difference

[janine01]

I am having another Mri on Wednesday next week. All my others were on 1.5T. All were with gad.
Has anyone noticed a big difference between the two. I hate Mri's. Is it much noisier than the lesser strenghth magnets?

[Quixotic1]

I would like to comment that the differences between the two strengths are far greater than in the slide show that Dr. Stone presented.  I was disappointed to see that he was using sources and images from 12 and more years ago.  I didn't see anything more recent than 1999.   He needs to get some up-to-date stuff.  The images on today's 3T is far FAR better than the 4T images there in that presentation - probably due to the great strides in software.

When we look at info from studies and presentations, it is important to look at when the data is from.  Medicine moves at lightening speeds and what we know now is leagues ahead of what they knew more than a decade ago.

Still the point is the same.  The higher the magnet, generally the better the image.

quix

[addicted2harleys]

The images in the link you sent were very helpful.  Thank you for sending it!

Dr. Stone is the neuro I saw when I went to the Cleveland Clinic.  ;0)

Addi

[jean_619]

I just had scan with a 3T on Saturday and it did seem significantly louder than all the other ones I had.  But then again, just as the scan was starting, the ear plug in my left ear fell out!  So that might have been why it was so loud   =)

Jean

[Quixotic1]

Did you see the discussion here on the front page of this very topic?

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Multiple-Sclerosis/15-vs-3-Tesla-MRI/show/1282664

Given the choice, I would pick the 3T if it was in a good, widely used imaging center.  

Quix

[Quixotic1]

Let's add that link to the HP on useful links.

Mike - even though the software is important, we have no way to evaluate any given program over another and the people in the MRI centers wouldn't know either.  The only solid given is that we can ask about the magnet strength.

Quix

[helen41]

Lulu- thankyou so much for that link. It was fastinating. I wonder if people would find it useful if it was put on the health pages? It seems like a link people might want to revisit

[Mike_Shuswap]

This topic came up not too long ago and I think I remember Quix saying the program that runs the mri machine is just as important as the magnet strength.

I know this just adds more questions to the mix.

I don't know how you would find out about the program, nor wether or not a particular program is considered to be good or not.

All things being equal the 3T has got to be better than the 1.5T (maybe twice as good?)

Good luck to you

Mike

[janine01]

Thank you for responding. I am having only the brain this time. I can't handle having c-sp and brain at once due to claustrophobia. It takes too long.

I will read the link that lulu sent .

Thank you

Janine

[essdipity]

Hi Janine. Are you talking brain MRIs? 3T will always be better than lesser strength, but the difference is not as important in brain MRIs.

For the spine, 3Ts are much better. The spine is very hard to image, so the stronger the better.

They're all noisy!! (Just had 2 hours' worth yesterday.) ugh. I don't think there's a difference there, but some of this may depend on the machine. Length of time also varies with machine and software.

Good luck to you. You're taking an important step, and I hope it pays dividends.

ess

[Lulu54]

It is a little noisier, but worth the difference in imaging.  the following is a link from a presentation this June of the MS consortium - look at the difference between the two and you will be amazed....

http://www.mscare.org/cmsc/images/pdf/2010CMSC_CC2_Stone_MRIintheDiagnosis.pdf

slide #29 shows the difference between a 1.5T and a 4T.  

Even though there is no dialogue to go with these slides, most of them are understandable.  I wish everyone here would take some time to look at this presentation because it really does explain all the different imaging sequences, and has fun pictures!

be well,
Lulu