[Horace316]

Recently while abroad I had the opportunity to receive a 3.0 Tesla MRI at relatively little cost.

I was looking forward to having some proof that my condition is real. Instead, the scans did not reveal any damage. This was both surprising and frustrating as I am quite positive that the symptoms I experience have an organic cause.

I have a few questions:

1. Does a 3.0 Tesla MRI detect everything? (If it helps at all, my concussion was the result of being kicked in the head).

2. Should I see a neurologist/behavioural neurologist or a neuropsychologist? I'm concerned that a neurologist would just take a look at my "normal" scans and dismiss me as healthy without even bothering to peform an fMRI. Do neuropsychologists perform/order fMRIs?


That's it for now...thanks to Guru Mark and whoever else responds!

[Mark in Idaho]

An MRI at 3 Tesla is better that the garden variety but you really need to get to 6 Tesla or above to see the axonal and other minute damage. MRI's at 3 Tesla may have a resolution about 1/2 the size of a BB. The old standard of resolution for a 1.5 T was the size of a BB.

The problems with MRI resolution are at least three fold. Tesla value, signal to noise ratio, and movement of the object being imaged. Can you imagine trying to maintain a perfect stillness within the size of a grain of salt with your body pumping blood and you taking breaths.

They have developed MRI's with 7T magnets that can image 80nm, yes, That 80 nanometers. These are not much help with in vivo (live object) image studies. Studies stabilized on a slide may be useful for research.

There are some very fast 11 and 12 T MRI machines that can get reasonably fine images. They are used for research. A Utah university has a 6 Tesla MRI years ago for research on the brains of football players. The images of brain damage scared the athletes to death so they discontinued the research. The psych department took over the machine and failed to maintain the cooling system properly and burnt out the super conducting coil.

So, your MRI was not likely strong enough to show damage.

fMRI can show which areas of the brain are active thus helping doctors understand if your brain is properly processing information. It appears to me that fMRI hold the most promise for imaging the cognitive/memory difficulties.

I am disheartened by the fact that qEEG has a very high reliability but has been bad mouthed to the point where it is considered quackery. No big money is made selling qEEG equipment so the qEEG industry struggles to overcome the bad press.

Hope this answers your question.

My best to you.

[July63]

I can understand you wanting the proof. What ended up happening to me is that I went to a neuropsychiatrist and was tested. Mark may have more on this but that is how I got the proof.