MRI of heart w/dye

[cynthiaG]

has anyone had the MRI of the heart with the dye?? I had an MRI done about a year and a half ago at NEMC....took about 45 min. and had to keep holding my breath (that was the tough part), but they did not inject any dye.

[Glen Beamish]

Re: MRI of heart w/dye

Hi Cynthia, yes, I don't know if it's actually a dye with MRI, I know it's dye when they do the angiogram. I've had both.
When I had the MRI, they injected a small bit of radio active material so they can take pictures of it.
If it is the dye, then it's no big deal, the dye they inject gives you a warm feeling as it rushes thru your body.

[cynthiaG]

Re: MRI of heart w/dye

thanks, Glenn. How long did it take and did you have to keep holding your breath???

[Glen Beamish]

Re: MRI of heart w/dye

Now your asking me to go back 30 years.
I actually spent a week in the hospital undergoing all kinds of tests because they were not that familiar with HCM at that time and didn't know what I had.
I cannot remember the actual time frame, but the MRI does take awhile and I believe there were times they asked me to very still and hold my breath.
I think they did the MRI with nothing first, then injected me and I had to wait awile, maybe an hour before they did the MRI again.
Like I said that was 30 years ago so maybe they do not do it twice now.
Anyway, I cannot remeber it being that big of a deal, my biggest problem was when they did the angiogram because they went into both groins to insert the tubes and probes and I remember later it hurt like **** and I had to lay there with these big weights on both my groins.

[Boz]

Re: MRI of heart w/dye

Cynthia-

Dr. Maron had me in for a cardiac MRI both with and without gadolinium contrast just recently (September 04).

I got to see many of the images. They were huge, animated computer files - so I only saw a few of the shots as it took a looong time to process on the PC he had set up. The images were incredible considering a beating heart presents problems for cameras - especially a heart in AFib as mine is/was.

The pictures were 3D - sharp as a tack leaving no doubt what one was looking at. The contrast apparently "attaches" to scare tissue in the heart and provides evidence of damage. In my case there was a lot.

The test did take more than an hour and there was a lot of breath holding.

Hope this helps.

[Tigger1]

Re: MRI of heart w/dye

Cynthia,

I remember mine taking about an hour and a half. Mine was done a few years ago. I remember holding my breath a lot and being very, very still while the test was going on...


Tigger1

[dughr]

Re: MRI of heart w/dye

Cynthia,

I also had one done in September with Dr. Maron and it was exactly as Boz described. Took about 1:20 in all. However, I never got to see the images...I'm jealous, Boz.


Doug

[cynthiaG]

Re: MRI of heart w/dye

so, what exactly do they find on these MRI's with the dye contrast? did anything show up that they weren't aware of initially?? I do know that they can locate scar tissue....also, can anything be done to take away excess scar tissue??

[gayle]

Re: MRI of heart w/dye

I know they can get a better idea of septal measurement. I didnt have any scar tissue so I dont know what they can do about it.
I had mine in May at Duke. Just like everyone else said. More than an hour and lots of "be still and hold your breath". Luckily I was so sleepy I dozed between comands on the head phones Just goes to prove I really can sleep ANYWHERE!

[dughr]

Re: MRI of heart w/dye

For mine they didn't find anything new. I didn 't hear they could see any scar tissue from my myectomy. The main thing they saw with mine was that my ejection fraction was diminished. It was just another test that supported what they saw with the echo. I think each person has different issues and yours may be good in that it will show any piculiarities (SP) in your situation. Let us know what happens.

Doug