MRI Scan for Brain with Diffusion with Contrast or functional MRI i.e. magnetic resonance imaging refers to a noninvasive type diagnostic test to measure minor changes in the blood flow while a person performs different tasks under the MRI scanner. In simple words, the test intends to detect the human brain while doing any action, such as moving or speaking. MRI Scan for Brain with Diffusion with Contrast thus provides detailed pictures of the activities performed by the respective human brain and determines the particular part of human brain that deals with critical functions, like speech, thought, vision, sensation and movements.
Patients should make sure of not wearing any tight cloth on the test day and rather go for comfortable clothes. Individuals should avoid intake of any caffeinated beverage at least before few hours of the test. One should avoid wearing any metal or jewelry and remove debit/credit cards. Bring reports of your previous MRI exams, CT scans or X-rays if you underwent with any or all of them in the past.
MRI scan helps doctors to understand the way, in which a stroke or a tumor has made alterations in one’s brain functions The test results act as important tool to plan for brain mapping surgery i.e. removal of tumors largely as possible without causing any arm to areas, which are critical for a patient’s life quality.
Patients lie on a particular moveable bed and his head cradled in a headrest, while arms at two different sides. After this, doctors place a coil/antenna on the head, while patients have earphones to hear. Next, doctors place fiducials i.e. small markers on the face, forehead or behind the ear. These appear as lifesavers and help surgeons while performing image-guided surgery.
Now, the table will move slowly within the magnetic field to perform an anatomic scan initially. Later on, patients will hear a thumping or muffled sound for few minutes at a time. After this, you will view a monitor that displays the necessary instructions for different tasks you have to do. In this case, you have to put your best possible efforts to accomplish each task, so that the system creates meaningful images of your brain. A few common tasks are tapping fingers, generation of words and verbs, completion of sentence and so on. The entire exam completes in only 1 or 2 hours.