Finding the best tools to solve medical mysteries:
Montreal, 31 July 2007 - Making an accurate medical diagnosis is a lot like solving a mystery. Like Sherlock Holmes with his trusty magnifying glass, doctors need accurate medical imaging equipment to see the clues that will allow them to "break the case" and prescribe the best possible treatment.
For pediatric specialists, medical imaging is especially important since little patients cannot always explain how they feel. The new review by Dr. Ricardo Faingold, interim Director of the radiology team of the Montreal Children’s Hospital at the MUHC, published in the July/August 2007 issue of "Current problems in diagnostic radiology", describes the most useful MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) techniques and some of their applications for pathologies of the urinary tract in kids and fetuses.
MRI is a state-of-the-art imaging technique that provides the clearest possible images of soft tissues such as organs, blood vessels, tumors or cysts. It enables physicians to observe details that would not be made visible by other more traditional methods.
Unlike other techniques that allow only one plan of an image, MRI makes it possible to acquire images on multiple plans, which can be compared and combined until the exact location of a structure, like the tumor above, is clear. Also, because it doesn’t use X-rays, MRI scanning is safe and involves no radiation, which is especially important when administering the test to children.
Links
[1] https://www.thechildren.com/
[2] http://www.muhc.ca/
[3] https://www.thechildren.com/%26#109;ailto:isabelle.kling@muhc.mcgill.ca