Medical Resonance Imaging - Essay Example

?Medical Resonance Imaging Myriad miraculous and astounding advances made by genius humans in the profoundly important and vast field of biomedical imaging have undeniably brought prodigious changes in the way clinical medicine is perceived today. Medicine practitioners and physicians around the globe have definitely been made proud and capable enough to perceive and investigate various hidden pathologies in the patients, thanks to the ingenious technological dreams made true by many notable biomedical engineers. Its is not an unknown fact that the bedrock of biomedical imaging, or simple referred to as medical imaging, is formed by employing various technologies in order to image different anatomical parts of the human body so as to reveal grave and suspicious clinical diseases or pathologies. Basically, presenting literature review about critically important research and development furthered by many scholars over time concerning Medical Resonance Imaging (MRI), which also happens to be an important technological form of medical imaging, lays the foundation of this paper. Basically, before MRI got introduced by the biomedical engineers, various pathological problems were left overlooked and went undetected since the feature of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) did not happen to be a characteristic found in other imaging technologies. Introduction of NMR through MRI technology brought revolutionary turn in clinical practice since it enabled the physicians to produce images by imaging nuclei of atoms inside the body. Imaging nuclei of atoms within the suspicious anatomical region which is intended to be imaged through MRI requires a magnetic field and intricate knowledge about pulses of radio wave energy. Since MRI equipment is majorly handled by the technologists, so it remains worth mentioning that they need to develop close familiarity with complex theories regarding pulses of radio wave energy so as to produce perfect visual images of at-risk structures within the body. Slight deviation from the established norm about using MRI equipment can lead to disastrous results such as different information may reach the physician leading him/her to make wrong diagnosis. This carelessness and naivety displayed on the part of technologists is potential of heavily interfering with the most distinguished feature of MRI, which is that it can show such obscured contagious problems within the human body which are impossible to be visualized with other imaging techniques. “Policies and procedures must be implemented to continue appropriate physiologic monitoring and management of the patient by trained personnel after the MRI procedure is performed” (Shellock, 2011). Having the status of a relatively new and amazing technology to hit the medical world, MRI is also considered to be a totally non-intrusive medical imaging technology. It is particularly capable of producing high-resolution visual images of internal at-risk structures which rules out the need to use x-rays since it employs radio frequency pulses, as mentioned before and which also rules out any significant post-imaging health risks which are often associated with many other imaging techniques (Disher et al., 2006). Another worth mentioning characteristic of MRI is that in addition to providing technical flexibility like making adjustments to perfect the contrast between soft tissues after scanning is done, virtually no ionizing radiation is used which sets this imaging technique in contrast to others like CT and x-rays (Keevil, 2001). The riveting ability to provide a highly appreciated contrast between different soft tissues of the body so as to highlight the grave abnormalities, no matter how small they may be, makes MRI the choice of investigation in many cases especially if cancers in brain, muscles, and heart are to be imaged. For example, using contrast agent during MRI for detecting pathological changes in brain, spine, heart or bones can help visualizing the abnormal tissue more explicitly. In addition to providing sharp information about as delicate structures as eyes and optic nerves, “MRI can look at the brain for tumors, an aneurysm, bleeding in the brain, nerve injury, and other problems, such as damage caused by a stroke” (WebMD, 2009). Some of the facts regarding hard-core physical features of MRI equipment are that the precession frequency which leads to stimulating the nuclei of atoms happens to be directly proportional to the strength of the magnetic field, which is one of the basic parts of the MRI machine. With the help of using a magnetic field in MRI equipment, NMR manages in producing macroscopic magnetization in terms of the total number of spins. As the radio frequency pulses are generated, the energy of the photons within the targeted anatomical part which is known as the resonance frequency spins the previously aligned protons and leads them to a high-energy state, thus producing transverse magnetization. The difference between energy of the photons before and after RF pulse stimulation results in photon release which gets detected by the scanner as a signal and which consequently helps in building a visual image of the part to be imaged. So, the precession frequency leads to stimulation of the nuclei of atoms within the targeted anatomical region to expose the hidden pathology. By changing settings on the MRI scanner, contrast can be created and controlled between the soft tissues so as to perfectly expose any hidden disease or an infiltrating cancer. In addition to precession frequency, T1 and T2, which refer to longitudinal and transverse magnetization in response to spins getting in phase and out of phase respectively, are together used to construct visual images (Hendee & Morgan, 1984). (Kwan-Hoong et al., 2003) lay stress on the nature on hazards related to MRI which they consider to be intrinsic to the MR environment and especially related to three types of magnetic fields to which the patients being scanned and technologists can be exposed. In addition to RF magnetic field, which is used in MRI in place of ionizing radiation as in CT or x-rays, the static magnetic fields, and time-varying magnetic field gradients form the three main types of magnetic fields used in MR. Such hazards are real life based incidents and not popularized just for the sake of strengthening antagonism to discourage those doing research regarding MRI risks. According to a 1995 incident reported in US Medical Device Reporting, “A patient received blistered burns on the finger where a pulse oximeter was attached during MR scanning. A skin graft was required to treat the affected area” (Kwan-Hoong et al., 2003). Though such fatal injuries on part of MRI scanning are quite rare, still all potential risks should be considered and discussed for the benefit of both patients and technologists. For example, the static magnetic field is always even when the MR scanner is not imaging the patient and research identifies that some structures within the body like retina, pineal gland, and some cells in the paranasal sinuses are particularly found to be sensitive to static magnetic fields, though the effects produced on such sensitive areas are never found to be carcinogenic, as identified by (Kwan-Hoong et al., 2003). As a way to reduce injuries in response to MRI imaging, field strength kept below 2 T as advised by the International Radiation Protection Association (cited in Kwan-Hoong et al., 2003). Summing up, this much remains clear from the above discussion that MRI is a medical imaging technology employed both in private clinics and hospitals worldwide to achieve detailed visual images of internal structures which happen to be at high risk of containing grave clinical maladies. Though MRI is based on the use of non-ionizing radiation and is concerned a safe imaging technique by the research community at large, still it has its share of hazards which can go very wrong if not handled appropriately. References: Disher, B, Lenarduzzi, L, Lewis, B, & Teeuwen, J 2006, Applications of MRI, viewed 19 November 2011, http://web2.uwindsor.ca/courses/physics/high_schools/2006/Medical_Imaging/mriapplication.html. Hendee, WR & Morgan, CJ 1984, ‘Magnetic Resonance Imaging Part I—Physical Principles’, West J Med, vol. 141, no. 4, pp. 491-500. Keevil, SF 2001, ‘Magnetic resonance imaging in medicine’, Physics Education, viewed 19 November 2011, http://iopscience.iop.org/0031-9120/36/6/305;jsessionid=44D5A1ECB9BF40A7E2E9200BC57379C2.c1. Kwan-Hoong, N, Ahmad, AC, Nizam, MS, & Abdullah, BJ 2003, Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Health Effects and Safety, viewed 19 November 2011, http://www.who.int/peh-emf/meetings/archive/en/paper04ng.pdf. Shellock, FG 2011, Monitoring Patients in the MRI Environment, viewed 19 November 2011, http://www.mrisafety.com/safety_article.asp?subject=40. WebMD 2009, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), viewed 19 November 2011, http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/magnetic-resonance-imaging-mri. Read More