@lilbird 

Last reply

lilbird

Diffusion weighted MRI

Hi all, hope you're doing well, Long time, no type 😋 So I have an up coming appointment for an MRI & as you may have deduced from the title of this post it is going to be diffusion weighted. Of course I immediately googled the term to see what it meant which is all very interesting but what I can't find is any info on what to actually expect on the day. Hoping someone on here can offer some insight.
@Breezy19

Hi @lilbird, the term diffusion weighted is just one of the techniques used when applying the magnetic fields and processing the data. I think it’s particularly useful if they’re looking for active demyelination, as opposed to old lesions. Have you had brain MRIs before? If so, I’d expect this one will probably seem no different to any other one you’ve had! For us, I think the biggest difference we notice is if they use contrast or not. The contrast is called gadolinium, and is injected through a cannula they put in your arm. I’ve had a dozen MRIs over the years, and I reckon I’ve had contrast on maybe 4 occasions. Sometimes I’ve known beforehand that they were going to use contrast, other times I’ve only found out on the day.

@lilbird

Hi @Breezy19, Thanks for that, yeah I've had multiple MRIs over the last several years & this is the first time this has come up. It seems to be being used as an alternative to the usual gadolinium contrast so I was being cautiously optimistic that it might mean I don't have to spend the usual extra 30-45mins of being a human pincushion while they try to find a suitable site for a cannula! That would be a nice change!