Cardiac MRI scans

[Piggyback302]

In august I had mri after I had a few days palpitations back in 2020. Yes it took that long to get seen to and that was after I went to A & E with chest pains, which turned out to pulled chest muscle. (Must have done it weight lifting in the gym).

The results from the August scan came back as no myocardial scar. no focal wall motion abnormality. Right ventricle size and function was normal. non-dilated atria. mild aortic regurgitation. (regurgitation fraction 5%).

I already knew I have impaired LV function. Ejection fraction of 40-45% a non dilated left ventricle, with mild global LV impairment.

I have no idea what all that means, but I was happy with the results back then.

I was absolutely shocked when I got another letter last week suggesting an appointment is necessary for another MRI because on viewing the images firther i might have an anlarged right handside of the heart.

My concerns are that if I had the scan in August with contrast would it not show the right hand side as being enlarged? why was it not picked upon the images back then before I was sent a letter implying that all was fine?

Any comments please

Thanks.

[Silvermedal]

I don't know why you have had conflicting messages, this must be very worrying for you.

I would suggest you contact the BHF helpline bhf.org.uk/informationsuppo...

I hope you get your appointment soon and this turns out not to be too serious.

[catherine1712]

It takes over three months to write a radiologist report. I had the same thing (mine was 4 months)

[Yumz199725]

Oh that's awful they didn't pick up on that 😢 straight away! 💔😔X

[Midgeymoo17]

There could be many reasons for this so try not to panic.

MRI while is very good and give some very detailed pictures. Its is innately much harder to get good pictures/ and measurements of the Heart as moving muscle even with contrast than pretty much any other part of the body and some of the angles it can get restricted. Hence, the fact it does have its limitations. I have had a couple times I have had where further tests ordered because of the result of an MRI scan where the further investigation showed the MRI result to be inaccurate or the MRI had to be repeated because I moved too much (whoops).

Between the age of 10 and 13 I had three repeat cardiac MRI's - each one showed that one of the major blood vessels between the right hight and left lung did not look to be developing properly. At 13, they admitted me, put me under genral anestic and consented my parents for intevention on it. Once the cardiac catheter was in - it was found the blood vessel was much wider than the MRI suggested and they came out having done nothing. This continues to be incorrectly reported on MRI results 12 years later because the angle.

At age 16, my consultant ordered a cardiac MRI to monitor the function of my pulmonary valve. At the time I had a temporary Cardiac device implant. The implant was MRI safe so I could go in the MRI scanner and did multiple times with successful MRI scans o my abdomen with the implant in. However, the device was located almost directly above the right side of the heart. So while it was safe for the MRI scanner, the meganetic distortion caused by the device rendered the images of the valve she was trying to see unsueable. She had to ring me back 1 week later apologetically explaining that on this one occasion we would need to repeat the investigation using CT (radiation).

The last thing, and I am no expert on this, but it maybe they are requesting a specific MRI imaging sequence that was not requested or performed last time. This would be in effect asking for a more specific test in repsonse to a general screening in order to try and effectively get a better image / different angle of a specific area.