MRI - 1.5 Tesla or 3 Tesla

[FindingAnswersMaccy]

Hello

I have my MRI next week & want to schedule an appointment however i am confused between 1.5 Tesla MRI & 3 Tesla MRI machine. I understand 3 Tesla is far more fast, accurate and very useful while imaging the bones.

3 Tesla MRI machine facility is very far from where i stay so wanted to check with you all which MRI machine do you usually gets your scans on ?

Is it 1.5 Tesla or 3 Tesla. Can 1.5 Tesla still detect brain lesions ?

[greaterexp]

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl....

my.clevelandclinic.org/depa...

There are other articles if you do a search. I'd ask my neurologist about that, especially when being used for diagnosis. He/she may have more insights in the differences and their significance.

Let us know how it goes.

[FindingAnswersMaccy in reply to greaterexp]

Thank you for sharing these links

It’s really helpful

[RoyceNewton]

You want the highest Tesla machine you can get the higher T the more accurate 3T is good and pretty standard I believe

[kdali]

T2 is what most people use.

[jimeka]

In the U.K., my brain MRI is always done with a 3. Usually the mobile units that they use here are 1.5 and they are used for knees and spine injuries. I would have a word with your neurologist. 😊

[twooldcrows]

have no idea about this ...

[DM0329]

FWIW, I've had my MRI's done on both. My typical one to two years MRIs are traditionally done on the 1.5, although, once when my insurance changed, I had to go to only "certain approved hospitals" so one time I had to travel into the city to get the MRI (that one was on the 3.0). Best of luck!

[Frances_B]

3T is meant to provide more info but not everyone is entirely agreed on that - as you can see from the ncbi article greaterexp posted the link to. That article is only a couple of years old and it found that although 3T did pick up a few more lesions than 1.5T there was not a significant enough difference to have any real effect on diagnosing MS. (I had the same article in my bookmarks as well.... )

I think you need to consider a couple of things here. Firstly, if you travel all those extra miles (and hours) to the 3T machine, will you be able to continue to travel to it for future MRI scans? Apparently it can be better to consistently get your scans done in the same machine each time (if possible) as this helps to limit variations in results from being done in different machines.

"Thus, when scanning individual patients, changes in scanner strength may generate an inaccurate representation of disease evolution over time, over- or under-estimating MS lesions. Previous scanner strength should be a primary consideration when deciding about future MRI scans to ensure comparability between studies."

link.springer.com/article/1...

Secondly, you've already had a couple of scans, so this one is really about seeing if there have been any changes since your previous scans, so the 3T may not be "essential" and if you can have your scan done in a machine that you've already been in this may be preferable - as noted in the above article. However, as has already been suggested, it could be worth asking your neurologist for their recommendation.

Although it's very long, I think you will find the article on this link very informative about MRIs in general.

multiple-sclerosis-research...

[FindingAnswersMaccy in reply to Frances_B]

Thank you for explaining this is detail. It means a lot.

Since I am still waiting for a confirmed diagnosis I was wondering if I should get an MRI in T3 and then in future depending on the results stick to one MRI machine