Comments on: What Is The Difference Between An Mri And A Cat Scan?

By: Bubbles

Bubbles — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:30:48 +0000

Cat Scans are usually x-rays of your brain and the MRI’s are of the spinal cord.

By: terriean

terriean — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:26:29 +0000

I don’t know how to answer that question. If it were me, I’d see another doctor and get a second opinion. Tell the second doctor about the different tests. He or she should be able to look at those so they don’t have to be repeated.

By: cowboydo

cowboydo — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 03:45:57 +0000

MRI’s or Magnetic Resonances Imaging in three dimensional and deep scanning will be the future. They no longer give you a handful of X-Ray photos but only a disc with interpretations on a computer.
The old huge MRI is on the way out, along with CATS. The new MRI is small and quick and above all, super quiet. There no longer a tube you have to be shoved into while that firing of the MRI sounds like machine gun rapid fire and very scary to especially children.
The new three dimensional pictures are very real, like the organ itself is out of the body and can be turned and twisted to the doctors advantage.
A radiologist should have read your scans, the interpretation is usually left to an expert. If your not comfortable with this ask your doctor and tell him your fears.
He should be able to give you an personal opinion of what is shown.

By: BVC_asst

BVC_asst — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 03:05:57 +0000

http://www.letsgooutdoors.net/difference…
This will explain everything.

By: Ravyn

Ravyn — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 03:02:25 +0000

I have no knowledge of any of this, but I think that cat scans scan your head/brain, and mri’s are for your body, shoulder’s down.

By: molex77

molex77 — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:28:58 +0000

I’m not comfortable trying to evaluate your tests but I’ll tell you the difference.
MRI is using radio waves where the protons are excited and give off energy which is detected external to the body where their signal is interpreted
Cat or CT(you’ll hear both terms) are x-rays. The x ray source spins around you and based on the attenuation in the body. An image is reconstructed.
Sonograms are rather iffy since you need to remember, a lot of that stuff in the abdomen won’t have any difference in their properties under US(sonogram) unless you’re looking for something specific.
The major difference between CT and MR is in the soft tissue contrast. With CT, it’s wonderful for its speed and for distinguishing problems due to emergent situations since the attenuation difference is great between tissue and bone. However, it sucks for differentiating soft tissues. It’s not easy to see a noticeable difference between liver and stomach for example since they attenuate about the same in terms of x-rays.
MRI is slow so its not good in ER situations however it provides a wealth more information since there is a difference based on healthy versus patholoigal tissue. There WILL BE A DIFFERENCE IN WHAT CAN BE SEEN IN AN MRI DUE TO THE BETTER CONTRAST.
It’s possible the liver enlarged in the interim between your tests. Additionally, there is some physiologcal variation based on diet, time of day, lots of factors….
Shoud you have the MRI?
Based on the fact that the doctors don’t seem to have a clear picture on what’s going on, the MRI will provide them with more information so it might be useful. Will it be definitive? Probably not, the best information for liver and kidney stuff still seems to be chemical rather than imaging.