Dr. Wise, SCI Nurse, I need MRI advice pls

[topdog]

Will Dr. Wise, SCI Nurse or any1 knowledgeable please advise.

I'm a T10 and I'm FINALLY going to have an MRI of my spine taken. This is like 6.5 years later. So here are my thoughts/questions:

1. Any general advice on how best to have the MRI done. For ex. should it be a "full cord" MRI as one doc once told me, or will just the section of the injured cord be good enough.
2. Will an MRI that is transmitted electronically be good enough to be read accurately/correctly.
3. Can you please suggest say 2 or 3 (good) doctors I can send my MRI to for reading. I will want to have as many opinions as possible.
4. Any other advice will be appreciated.

Thank you

[Wise Young]

Originally Posted by topdog

Will Dr. Wise, SCI Nurse or any1 knowledgeable please advise.

I'm a T10 and I'm FINALLY going to have an MRI of my spine taken. This is like 6.5 years later. So here are my thoughts/questions:

1. Any general advice on how best to have the MRI done. For ex. should it be a "full cord" MRI as one doc once told me, or will just the section of the injured cord be good enough.
2. Will an MRI that is transmitted electronically be good enough to be read accurately/correctly.
3. Can you please suggest say 2 or 3 (good) doctors I can send my MRI to for reading. I will want to have as many opinions as possible.
4. Any other advice will be appreciated.

Thank you

topdog,

You should get the full MRI of every part of your spinal cord. The more the better.

I don't know about electronic transmittal but a high resolution set of files is hundreds of megabytes or even gigabytes.

You should not just send the MRI to doctors. You need to contact them and discuss the situation with them and get their permission to send MRI images to them.

Wise.

[topdog]

Originally Posted by Wise Young

topdog,

You should get the full MRI of every part of your spinal cord. The more the better.

Hi Doc. The only draw back to this is that a full MRI will cost 3ce the amount that it would cost just a section. MRI's don't come cheap where I am and I'm footing the bill myself. But we'll see.

Originally Posted by Wise Young

You should not just send the MRI to doctors. You need to contact them and discuss the situation with them and get their permission to send MRI images to them.

Well yes what I really meant here was if there was any (good) hospital/doctor that I could be referred to, that I could discuss my case with them with a view to sending them my MRI.
Thanks.

[dunwawry]

2. Will an MRI that is transmitted electronically be good enough to be read accurately/correctly.

As long as the full file is transmitted, there will be no loss in quality versus a file sent on CD (or DVD, if the file is several gigabytes). However, if the file is compressed to reduce the size of the file in order to either reduce the download time required or to comply with file size limits imposed by servers relaying the file, there will be loss of quality and resolution. Email has limits of 10 MB, sometimes a bit more, so using email for transmission would not be an option. The sender and receiver would have to have ftp or some similar program for transferring files, or there could be online access provided from a web server.