Clinical update

Since the school year has started we have had so many pediatrics coming in with sports injuries. We have had quite a few ortho cases including knees, wrists, shoulders, ankles, and feet. All patients were under the age of 17! These patients included football players, swimmers, soccer players, and runners. A lot of the knee scans showed torn meniscus and ACL tears. I have decided if I have children they are playing golf! We are just now starting to learn how to T2 mapping with our upgraded software. This program allows us to post process knee scans and with color determine where patients have good and or bad/damaged cartilage. This is very new and I will post more as we get more involved. What I have seen of it, I have been very impressed!

Just from our first few weeks of classes, I have already learned so much more about MRI! Especially the anatomy on the scans. This past week for me has been a very busy one! We run a 1.5 tesla strength magnet from 8:ooam until 8:30pm monday through saturday. The few days I was there, I averaged at least ten patients a day. One of my cases was a little different. I had to do a Brain MRI on a patient with nasopharangeal cancer. My radiologists have a specific protocol and it takes approximately one hour to do. This patient had his mandible removed due to the cancer and was extremely claustrophobic, so it was a bit of a challenge for me. He was sedated, but he still was having a hard time laying in the scanner. The axial scans start at the hyoid bone and need to cover through the pituitary. The coronals must begin posterior to the brain stem and anteriorly through the face. It was challenging, but also a very educational process.