MRI and Its Many Applications: Using MRI in Diagnosing Blood Clots

Deep vein thrombosis, more popularly known as a blood clot, is a type of clump that occurs when the blood hardens and turns solid or semi-solid. It can be caused by poor dietary habits, injuries, or an infected body part. It causes vascular obstruction, and could prove dangerous if not treated in a timely manner. Blood clot can be present in different areas of the body like the arm, leg, heart, abdomen, and lungs.

How physicians diagnose blood clots

When diagnosing a blood clot in a patient, the physician considers the individual’s risk factors, symptoms, and test results of the imaging method used to see the clot. Possible imaging tools used to detect blood clots include Doppler ultrasound, veneography, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), MRA (magnetic resonance angiography), and CT (computerized typography) scans, and the D-dimer blood test.

Using MRI as a blood clot diagnosing tool

MRI is an effective way to diagnose blood clots. More specifically, MRI is used to provide pictures of organs and tissues when the blood clot has developed into a pulmonary embolism, which is blood clot that travels to the lungs. Symptoms of pulmonary embolism include:

●     Chest pain

●     Rapid heart rate/palpitations

●     Breathing problems

●     Sudden shortness of breath that isn’t caused by any physical activity

●     Coughing up blood

Aside from PE, MRI can be used to detect blood clots in the brain.

The MRI machine uses radio frequency wave pulses to compel hydrogen atoms to lineup with tissues, when the pulse stops and the hydrogen atoms go back to their natural state, they start to give off a signal that the MRI machine can read. The MRI machine then takes a picture of these signals.

Different tissues give off different signals. Likewise, a blood clot gives off a different signal than flowing blood. An MRI can detect these differences, and in the process is able to detect DVT.

Source:

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the Head, WebMD