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The Exam
Your exam will last between 30 and 60 minutes. You will need to lie still for periods of 3 to 10 minutes at a time while the series of images are collected. You can breathe freely during this time. You may, in some cases, be allowed to move slightly between scans, but not so much that your position changes.
The imaging session creates a series of repetitive knocking sounds when the magnetic field gradients are turned on and off. Because of the volume of these sounds, it is recommended that you wear ear protection. The ear protection consists of foam ear plugs which you roll between your fingers and insert into your ears. This form of protection provides upwards of 26 dB of noise suppression. Some imaging sites provide an airplane-like audio system for those being imaged. These systems provide some noise suppression, and also mask out the imager sound with music.
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Some individuals experience magnetophosphenes when placed in the magnetic field. Magnetophosphenes are a visual sensations of flashes of light on the retina. They were first reported by the French physiologist Jaques-Arsène d'Arsonval in 1896.
They are caused by induced electric currents in the retina when moving through a static magnetic field, or when stationary in an changing magnetic field. In either case, the field strength must be greater than ~ 7 mT.
Your Results
In medicine, the diagnosis of disease is rarely the result of a single exam or test performed by a single individual. The physician, who interacts directly with you, takes advantage of input from many specialists.
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One of these specialists is the radiologist. A radiologist is a medical doctor, trained to interpret the information in magnetic resonance images. A radiologist will read the magnetic resonance images from your scan, and provide your physician with a report. Your physician will share the findings from the radiologist and other medical specialists with you.