The potential advantages of cardiac MRI scan compared to cardiac ultrasound or cardiac CT?

09-11-2017

Cardiac MRI, ultrasound and CT are complementary tests and use in slightly different indications in the diagnostic process of different heart diseases, however cardiac MRI scan have some advantages compared to other techniques.

Advantages of cardiac MRI scan against cardiac ultrasound:

• In some patients (e.g. in patients with obesity, certain lung disease, chest deformity) it is not possible to take good quality (diagnostic) images of the heart with ultrasound because of the limited penetration of the ultrasound – cardiac MRI scan is still able to image the heart of these patients.
• The measurements of left and right ventricular volumes are more reliable with cardiac MRI than with ultrasound.
• Heart MRI is more suitable to investigate the right ventricle and the pulmonary valve (the valve of the heart that lies between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery) than ultrasound.
• Cardiac MRI provides opportunity to investigate the great vessels (aorta, pulmonary artery) precisely during the same study.
• Cardiac MRI scan as opposed to ultrasound is suitable to identify and differentiate several tissues in the heart (e.g. heart muscle, fibrotic tissue/scar, fat, water) – especially with contrast.

Advantages of cardiac MRI against cardiac CT:

• Cardiac MRI is radiation free while cardiac CT uses X-rays, therefore it can be applicable less frequently.
• Cardiac CT uses iodine-based contrast during the scan to enhance and improve the quality of images. The iodine-based agents used for CT have the potential to cause severe reduction in kidney function for patients with pre-existing kidney problems and severe allergic reactions.
• Cardiac MRI scan uses different, gadolinium-based contrast agent to visualize structures more effectively, but these contrasts do not contain iodine and are milder when comparing for allergic reaction and risk of kidney failure. Gadolinium-based MRI contrast material can be safely used in patients, who are sensitive to iodinated contrast agent.

Should I be afraid of MRI scan?

Not at all.

Painless procedure

The MRI scan is a completely painless procedure. When indicated by the radiologist, the operator injects contrast material into the patient’s vein. This is also painless due to many years of experience of our technicians.

Patient with claustrophobia

Many patients get nervous and anxious in the tunnel during the scan. We would like to make them feel comfortable in our MRI machine. At our clinic, our scanner is closed but extremely short and it has a larger diameter (plus 10 cm) than the average.