Had an opportunity today to spend an hour or so inside a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine.

If you haven’t had one, an MRI might sound futuristically high-tech, like the handheld medical scanners on science fiction shows.  And while an MRI will provide high resolution images of the internal structures of your body, in reality, an MRI is more like your mom’s washing machine than Dr. McCoy’s tricorder.

MRI scanners use a combination of magnetic fields and radio waves to produce detailed images. That’s pretty cool, and the images are remarkably helpful, but magnetic fields and radio waves aren’t exactly cutting-edge technology.

To be scanned, you lie inside the MRI machine, which is shaped like a large tube. Before you are inserted in the machine, you get earphones to listen to your choice of music. The first time I did it, I figured the music was to relax people who might be a little nervous about being confined in a space so tight that you cannot roll over.

Once they turned on the MRI, though, I realized that the music is really a failed attempt to drown out the alarmingly loud clanging and rattling of the machine. I am not sure how they generate the magnetic fields, but it sounds like it might involve two or three primates banging on metal trash cans. When they started the classical music I selected, I thought it was too loud.  Once the MRI began rocking and rolling, though, I couldn’t even hear the music. Next time, it’s heavy metal.

Still, the images were quite helpful, and as far as I know no parts actually flew off the MRI scanner while I was in there.

November 19, 2018