For those that do not know, an MRI is an examination of the internal parts of your body using a special piece of medical equipment known as a magnetic resonance imaging tunnel. It is tunnel shaped because the patient being examined has to lie within a large tube that is, actually, a large, helium cooled, superconductor electromagnet.
Unlike ferromagnetism; the magnetic field generated by electromagnets is controllable in relation to the applied electrical current. No current and there is no magnetism; high currents generate high magnetic fields and that field strength is as easy to control as the dimmer switch on a light bulb. The technician operating the MRI sets the patient in position and applies a high strength magnetic field; once this has stabilized; the patient’s body is stimulated with radio waves which make changes to the normal orientation of that body’s protons. The radio waves are then switched off and the equipment starts to monitor the body’s electromagnetic transmissions. Computer technology is used to construct internal images of the body from the monitored signals. These images are like slices across the selected part of the body.
OK; They Don’t Cut You Open; But, What’s The Point Of It?
By using MRI High Field In Riverhead NY for their examinations; doctors and medical specialists can compare a new patient’s images with standard, healthy, normal images to see if the patient shows any anomalies in places like their hearts, veins, arteries, brains, etc which would otherwise be difficult to diagnose without either intrusive surgery or the use of possibly hazardous radiation. This is made possible by the protons mentioned above.
Our bodies contain a lot of water and water is comprised of hydrogen and oxygen atoms. A proton is part of the nucleus of the hydrogen atom and they are present in varying amounts throughout our body tissues. These protons can be excited by the MRI high field magnetism and those in healthy tissue respond differently from those in diseased tissue. This enables early diagnosis of possible disease problems as well as a guide to a patient’s response to therapy.
Patients should not be too concerned about the advanced physics involved; nor should they be alarmed by the appearance of the equipment used for their examination by MRI High Field In Riverhead NY. Instead, they should think of it as a test that they would like to fail; since, if the equipment finds nothing out of the ordinary, you know you are OK.
The North Fork Radiology facility has all the equipment and trained technicians to conduct examinations by MRI High Field In Riverhead NY.