Mri diffusion weighted

[Amy0302]

Hi everyone I hope you’re doing okay.

I’ve had a letter today with an mri appointment I’ve been waiting for & it listed 3 scans, a pelvic mri and an abdominal mri which I’ve had numerous times but it also listed ‘mri diffusion weighted’ which I’ve never had or even heard of before. I tried to google it to see what it is or what to expect but I can’t seem to get a straight answer. I was just wondering if anyone has had one of these and could give me a bit on an insight? I like to know what’s going to happen as it helps with my anxiety.

Thanks in advance x

[cyberbarn]

A diffusion weighted MRI is just a variation of an MRI.

MRIs are not like x-rays. X-rays take a photo of the body with x-rays. But an MRI is more of a computer thing. It is all data, ones and zeros, and that data has to be reconstructed to make it look like a 3D picture of the inside of your body.

A diffusion weighted MRI measures the random motion of water molecules within a voxel. A voxel is the equivalent of a pixel on a computer screen. So for each little bit of you it will put the data though some software to allow the data to be understood better.

So I wouldn't worry about it, it is still an MRI, it will just be a different way of looking at your insides, mostly handled by software.