Before the Examination
Before your MRI examination, you should inform your caregiver if you
have food allergies, drug allergies, hay fever, hives, or allergic
asthma. Your caregiver should also know if you have any serious health
problems, and what surgeries you have undergone. Women should always
inform their physician or technologist if there is any possibility
they are pregnant.
We will not perform an MRI on a patient during the first trimester
(the first three months) of pregnancy. If you are breastfeeding at the
time of the examination, you should ask your technologist how to proceed.
You should not have an MRI if you have anything in your body that a
magnet attracts. Because they can interfere with the magnetic field of
the MRI machine, metal and electronic objects are not allowed in the
examination room. Items that may interfere with your having an MRI include:
Clothing and accessories:
- Jewelry including rings, earrings, necklaces, or watches
- Pens, pocketknives, and eyeglasses
- Credit cards and
other cards containing magnetic data
- Pins, hairpins, and
similar metallic items, which can distort MRI images
- Clothing has metal hooks, buttons, zippers, or other metal items
on it
Metal from surgery or injury:
- Removable dental work
- Bullets or pieces of
shrapnel
- Pieces of metal fragments in your eyes from
welding
Medical aids and implants:
- Hearing aids and cochlear (ear) implants
- Artificial
or prosthetic limbs or joints, such as an artificial knee joint
- Aneurysm clips
- Heart pacemaker
- Implanted
cardiac defibrillator
- Implanted IV ports
- Implanted
spinal stimulators
- Insulin pump
- Certain
intrauterine devices or "IUDs"
- Medication patches
- also called a "transdermal" or "skin" patch.
Some medication patches may have metal in or on them. Examples of
medication patches are nicotine, birth control, and nitroglycerin
patches.
- Some metal surgical pins, plates, screws, or
surgical staples. In most cases, these things will not cause a
problem with an MRI.
Creatinine blood test
A creatinine blood test is required within 30 days prior to the MRI
examination for the following people:
- Patients who are age 60 years or older
- Patients who
are diabetic (insulin and non-insulin dependent types)
- Patients who have a history of kidney insufficiency/kidney
masses/single kidney
If you have this test done at an outside facility, it is your
responsibility to obtain a copy of the result and bring it to the
appointment with you.
Learn more about blood tests.
Eating before your appointment
If you are getting intravenous contrast material, which helps your
body part show up better in the MRI pictures, or sedative medicine
during the examination, you may be asked to not eat solid food for
four to eight hours before the examination.
If you are getting a mesenteric ischemia MRI, you may not have food
for six hours prior to the examination, but you may have water.
If you are receiving a certain cardiac MRI examination, you may not
have food for two hours before the examination and NO coffee (decaf or
regular); NO caffeine; NO tea; and NO chocolate for 24 hours prior to
the examination.
For patients who suffer from claustrophobia
If you require medication for claustrophobia, please have your
referring physician arrange a prescription for you.