quentinA hypothetical guide to knee reconstructions... Part Four!
August 18th 2006 06:41
Today Sport Talk returns to the highs and lows of a crucaite ligament knee reconstruction. The focus is on diagnosis: an MRI scan.
Magnetic Resonance Imagine (MRI) is an expensive, but popular diagnostic tool used by surgeons to assess the damage to your knee and determine an appropriate course of action.
Unlike x-ray and ultrasound, which cannot adequately render knee ligaments and meniscus, an MRI provides surgeons with a three-dimensional slice by slice image of your knee.
I’m not going to attempt to explain how an MRI works, but I’ll let Wiki try…
Medical MRI most frequently relies on the relaxation properties of excited hydrogen nuclei in water. When the object to be imaged is placed in a powerful, uniform magnetic field the spins of the atomic nuclei with non-zero spin numbers (essentially, an unpaired proton or neutron) within the tissue all align in one of two opposite directions: parallel to the magnetic field or antiparallel. Common magnetic field strengths range from 0.3 to 3 teslas, although research instruments range as high as 20 teslas, and commercial suppliers are investing in 7 tesla platforms. (For comparison, average Earth's magnetic field is around 50 μT, that is more than 100 000 times lower.)
Let’s just say that this machine uses a very, very powerful magnet to make the building blocks of your body spin and this spinning is used to create very detailed images. When you present for an MRI, you must remove any magnetic objects on your person.
To give you an idea of the power of an MRI machine, if you swallowed a magnet the night before your scan, it would be ripped clean out of your body and stick to the machine until powered down – so don’t fool around in there, and don’t move either – not even wiggling your toes.
Despite the MRI producing about 30 pages of films and cross-sections of your knee, there is a good chance your surgeon won’t even look at the images themselves. Your OS is more interested in the report written by the professional who conducted the MRI. The report outlines the condition of your knee, it grades the severity of tears and the overall condition of the joint itself.
Your surgeon will use the report to determine that the best course of action is, of course, surgical repair of your ruptured anterior cruciate ligament. Well, he’s not going to suggest physio is he now?
Next time we'll discuss the types of grafts that can be used for an ACLR and the pros and cons associated with each!
It's big, bad and ugly. But the MRI can help your surgeon take the guesswork out of important decisions.
Magnetic Resonance Imagine (MRI) is an expensive, but popular diagnostic tool used by surgeons to assess the damage to your knee and determine an appropriate course of action.
Unlike x-ray and ultrasound, which cannot adequately render knee ligaments and meniscus, an MRI provides surgeons with a three-dimensional slice by slice image of your knee.
I’m not going to attempt to explain how an MRI works, but I’ll let Wiki try…
Medical MRI most frequently relies on the relaxation properties of excited hydrogen nuclei in water. When the object to be imaged is placed in a powerful, uniform magnetic field the spins of the atomic nuclei with non-zero spin numbers (essentially, an unpaired proton or neutron) within the tissue all align in one of two opposite directions: parallel to the magnetic field or antiparallel. Common magnetic field strengths range from 0.3 to 3 teslas, although research instruments range as high as 20 teslas, and commercial suppliers are investing in 7 tesla platforms. (For comparison, average Earth's magnetic field is around 50 μT, that is more than 100 000 times lower.)
Let’s just say that this machine uses a very, very powerful magnet to make the building blocks of your body spin and this spinning is used to create very detailed images. When you present for an MRI, you must remove any magnetic objects on your person.
To give you an idea of the power of an MRI machine, if you swallowed a magnet the night before your scan, it would be ripped clean out of your body and stick to the machine until powered down – so don’t fool around in there, and don’t move either – not even wiggling your toes.
Despite the MRI producing about 30 pages of films and cross-sections of your knee, there is a good chance your surgeon won’t even look at the images themselves. Your OS is more interested in the report written by the professional who conducted the MRI. The report outlines the condition of your knee, it grades the severity of tears and the overall condition of the joint itself.
The MRI produces a slice-by-slice image of your knee. Look closely - on the far left is your knee cap - the black thing in the middle is your cruciate ligament!
Your surgeon will use the report to determine that the best course of action is, of course, surgical repair of your ruptured anterior cruciate ligament. Well, he’s not going to suggest physio is he now?
Next time we'll discuss the types of grafts that can be used for an ACLR and the pros and cons associated with each!
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