MRI with Hyperacusis

@Juan Yes they still produce high quality pictures because it's 3 Tesla yet they are not so loud. Open MRI is 0.5 or 0.7 T, that's why their pictures are not so good. Toshiba Pianissimo is designed for people like us and others who are simply scared to go inside. They may not exactly be 70 dB but they are not louder then 80 dB for sure.

 

@Saraazar It helped me a little bit with the burning constant pain. But my LDL is the same and I still get that sharp dull stabbing pain after being exposed to some sounds.

 

Have you had an MRI with the Toshiba Pianissimo machine?

 

Vacuum sealing the gradient coils drastically reduces the noise level, but in general the higher the magnetic strength (.7T vs 3T) the louder it is going to be. Although, a higher magnetic strength means they will get better quality images and the procedure should take a lot less time. All that being said, I would go for the Galan 3T if I had to.

What they image and what sequences they have to uses makes a big difference too. I have heard echo-planar is typically the loudest.

 

An MRI made my T much worse. Regret it.

 

What happened?

 

@Juan I'm having MRI in Toshiba Pianissimo most likely in December or January. After the test I will share how it went.

 

Are you in the US? I've emailed Cannon and called them and they have yet to find me an MRI machine with Pianissimo. Last time they sent me a location that didn't actually have the technology.

 

I live in Europe. I found MRI 3.0T Pianissimo in Pardubice in Czech Republic. I have a friend who lives in Prague and he just needs to see which dates are available to make make an appointment.

Btw their customer service is really bad. It's really hard to find the location of clinics who have these scanners. A few months ago I called directly in Canon customer service department to ask them where I can find one of these and the secretary connected me with 5 different departments. They had no clue in which clinics they sold their products to. After 1 hour someone gave me information about a clinic that has it...

 

Great! Please let us know! By the way, you are lucky to live in the Czech Republic, such a beautiful country!

 

@Juan My friend lives there. I'm from North Macedonia. You are right, I would've been lucky if I was living there, it's such a beautiful city. I will inform you after the scan how it went...

 

The noise made my T worse. I should have stopped and asked for better ear protection.

 

Does an MRI EVER show anything regarding the ears, hyperacusis, tinnitus or ear pain?

It seems it's useless and even harms people more by worsening tinnitus and I wonder if it worsens hyperacusis and ear pain in some cases too.

Why aren't these tinnitus associations not contacting physicians and hearing centers about this? ATA, BTA etc are not any help at all!!!!

 

@PeteJ MRI cannot show something regarding tinnitus, hyperacusis or hearing loss. It's being used mostly to remove the possibility of having cancer and in some rare cases it can show when some nerve is being compressed from artery or vein or some other trigeminal issues. So many people have had a clear MRI scan but during surgery it was found that some nerve was compressed.

The healthcare lacks awareness and knowledge about the potential damage of the loud sound coming from MRI. They can reach even 110 dB level and during some sequences even 115-120 dB...

 

Better to avoid it then?

My ear pain is so bad, if I had a terminal problem, I wouldn't want treatment anyway.

 

@PeteJ I'm not a doctor by any means but I believe that it's not worth it because most probably it won't show anything and on the other hand you can make your tinnitus or hyperacusis worse. Some people do have something on their MRI scan but it's rare.

Where do you live? Maybe you can find Toshiba Pianissimo 3T MRI somewhere or some other quiet MRI that doesn't reach more then 85 dB sound level. You must find 3T MRI beacuse 1.5 T or 0.5 doesn't produce so good scans.

I will advise you to visit a neurologist in the meantime and tell him about your situation. Maybe he will prescribe you an anticonvulsant if he believes you have trigeminal issues. They have some side effects but are pretty safe when they are not abused. I'm consuming 1500 mg GABA and 20 mg Amitriptyline daily and they are helping me to reduce the pain to some tolerable degree. Without them, I could not survive this horrible constant burning 24/7 pain :/

 

That sucks, man. I was actually recommended to get an MRI by the place I got my hearing test done. When she suggested that, I vaguely remembered chatter here that it's bad for T. Now I'm that much more wary of it. From her perspective she was thinking maybe there's some mechanical thing that could be diagnosed (I do have TMJ) but I seriously doubt doing something to alleviate that will really alter my T that much. That's the problem with going down the traditional medical industrial complex. I know I'll spend a lot of time in offices and nothing will really change at the end of the day.

 

I realize most of these comments are older, but I am newly facing this same conundrum. I wonder if the OP has found any relief or any of the previous commenters here. I wish I had some solace to offer, but this is all new to me. I am scheduled for an MRI / MRA (60 minutes total for both) on Dec. 6th (2020), and I've suffered Tinnitus and Hyperacusis since a vertigo episode on Oct. 11th. I now realize I've had gradually worsening hyperacusis for years. Just didn't know what it was. Now, I've doubled over screaming in doctor's offices when more than one person starts talking. I can't handle talking to someone with noise in their environment as I can't pick out their voice from the ambient sounds. Doctor wants to test me for brain damage and early dementia since AD runs in my family (mom has advanced case). I'm on the young side for that, but it can attack young people too. I initially refused the MRI, but was convinced that it's a better choice than CT. Irony is . . . I was only worried about my severe claustrophobia and plan to take Ativan. Didn't realize the sound would be an issue. Now, I'm terrified I'll have an attack of bad hyperacusis and be trapped in there! Anyone with T or HA had success with MRI or some tips to try? Thanks! Plus, if I find out anything that helps, I'll definitely come back and post something useful.

 

I think you will be able to give them a signal to stop the test.

The problem is that there is a very small chance of getting louder tinnitus as a result of having an MRI. Could your doctor learn the same things from a CT scan?!

I would do an MRI only if my life were to literally depend on it...

 

Exactly.

These monsters are really, really loud.

Brain MRIs are the loudest by the way. I did one, I shouldn't have.

Some manufacturers claim they have "silent scans", but only a few programs are run "silent", all the other programs, especially for the brain, are overly loud.

If CT scan is an alternative, I wouldn't hesitate and go for it.

 

I second this.

Brain ones are horribly loud, and even if a machine has "silent" technology it only runs on a percentage of a scan, assuming the techs even know how to properly use it. Most people seem to be okay but there is the chance of worsening severely. If it can be avoided I wouldn't do it.

 

Hi Marko, I realise that this is a pretty ancient thread, but your mention of a Pianissimo scanner in Pardubice caught my attention when I was reading through search results on the forum regarding Canon scanners.

If you see this post, can you remember the clinic or hospital in Pardubice? Thank you.

Also, if anyone else knows of medical facilities in Europe (especially Eastern Europe) equipped with Canon (e.g., Vantage) scanners, please add a reply here. Much appreciated!