Silent Scan MRI Wasn’t So Silent... Help!

Hi all.

I had a 20 minute MRI today on my knee.

I’ve been really worried about having a loud MRI, and I spent ages researching a private hospital with latest software silent scan MRI technology so I wouldn’t make my tinnitus worse.

I spoke to the radiologist before several times, who advised me that their silent MRI would only be 6 dB above ambient noise levels, and it used a mixture of two scan technologies - GE Silent Scan (and the even quieter Silenz scan). He even downloaded a new software and ran a sequence on the machine one day with nobody in it just to test it for me! He went in the MRI room himself and said that it was only just audible above the ambient room noise.

This made me very confident. Then I had the scan...

Whilst a few of the scan sequences were definitely quiet (<5 mins), unfortunately three of the scan sequences (each about 5 mins long) were a constant wall of loud noise. It felt loud and I could feel the vibrations under my head, even though my head wasn’t in the machine. It was not loud enough to hurt my ears, and the noise itself was not crazy loud if were to be felt in bursts, but instead it was a constant wall of noise that didn’t stop. Very stress inducing! For example, my blender is tolerable for 10 seconds, but I wouldn’t want it to last 15 mins!! I would estimate the MRI was about 90-95 dB, though it was hard to tell with my hearing protection on.

The entire time I wore properly inserted silicone moulds and the over-ear defenders that they provide to you.

He even came into the room whilst I was in there a few times, and told me he could not hear it very loudly.

Is he deaf?! Or is it significantly louder when you are next to the machine and can feel the vibrations?

My tinnitus is now worse in both ears since, and now I’m wishing I never went.

How is it possible he could hardly hear it in the room, and I could hear it very loudly with my head just outside the tube? I just don’t get it. It was certainly not quiet, and to me it was uncomfortable in volume.

Any ideas, or anyone experienced this?

Thanks,
R

 

If the spike doesn't go away, we'll have to assume the MRI made your pre-existing tinnitus and hearing loss worse.

So sorry.

 

Simply shocking...

 

Even if this MRI was 95 dB, you had double hearing protection which reduces in the worst case 25dB so you were exposed to 70 dB for 20 minutes?
I am pretty sure you're having an anxiety spike but I'm no expert.
Hope you can relax a bit soon so your spike can settle.

 

I got my T two years ago after an exposure to a sound (that wasn't that loud) that lasted less than half a second. Now what?

 

yup sure do! me and a few others have joined the fu'ked by MRI club.

I suggest people with T to avoid MRIs unless it is absolutely necessary especially if the T is noise
induced.

Hope it settles for you.

 

Well then I guess you were very unlucky, there is no reason to think the same will happen to @Rust .
If I were you I would stop taking finasteride by the way. It totally messes up your hormones and post finasteride syndrome is a real thing.

 

Sorry to hear about this. I suggest you try to trick your mind that it didn't cause a problem. Then update us in a month. Source? 7 years experience dealing with these noise events and working on the mind.

 

Sorry to hear that the T got worse.

Need to give this some time, as many spikes are temporary lasting hours to even months before improving.

Try some antiinflammatory. I currently use green tea daily and omega3 pills. I am not sure which is helping, but after months of suffering with little improvement, got substantial improvement with little downside when I started both of them

Also be sure to avoid additional noise exposure as best you can, without wearing hearing protection 24-7.

 

For the MRI the quietest machines are the Toshiba Vantage series
They have patented Hardware mods to make the machine quieter
As its patented GE cannot use those

GE can claim silent scans on some software specific sequences only, but for deep tissue scans they have to use the regular loud scans.

For a stomach scan its going to be as loud as any other non-silent MRI machine

I had a 45 minutes scan with 20 minutes of sound in a 3T Toshiba Vantage Galan - with only silicone plugs - and zero spike afterwards.

Toshiba 3T Galan - State of the art MRI...

 

Was this an abdominal scan you had? Brian MRI's have one of the loudest sequences too from what I've been told.

I have a scan in a few days that's supposed to last over an hour!

There are no silent scans near me, so I picked an open MRI machine that I think should be a little bit quieter than a closed MRI. It's in a Fonar .6T open MRI. The MRI tech even let me come check it out in between patients and turned the MRI on so I could test out the sound levels. I have MRI safe earmuffs that I bought that I plan on wearing those on top of earplugs (I checked this out with the tech). Since it's not of my head, I wonder if there is anything else I can do to reduce the noise?

I called the manufacturer of the MRI and they told me it's 98db in the worst case scenario (loudest sequence), but usually quieter than that.

I have very reactive tinnitus, and I'm really nervous about this, but an MRI is the only scan that's going to give me answers that I need. I even thought about flying to somewhere else to get a Toshiba Vantage MRI, but I'm not sure how much quieter it would be for a deep tissue scan... all the techs I talked to that worked with these told me it's still pretty loud.

 

What model are they?

Good luck with your MRI.

 

MRI Safe Pro-Ears Ultra Pro Premium Ear Muffs (NRR 30). I figure they are likely better than the headphones most places have you use.

I'm really nervous about this exam and have even put it off and deliberated over it for weeks. I'm scheduled for Monday...

When the tech turned the machine on I had earplugs and earmuffs over them, it was loud and annoying, but it didn't seem too loud. He told me there would be other sequences, but they wouldn't be any louder than the one he ran. An hour and a half is a long time though!

I wonder if there is anything else I can do besides double protection? I have noticed in the past that if I put olive oil (I use it for irritated ear canals) over my foam earplugs it seems to help them make a better seal.

The tech I talked to was very understanding, he even said we could put pillows or a blanket over those if it would help, but there will be a different tech running my MRI on Monday. Other places I called told me I wouldn't be allowed to bring in my MRI safe earmuffs because they have 'headphones that can play music or be used for announcements'.

 

Reading so many horror stories on this forum worries me. This is the quietest machine that I can find that is anywhere near me.

Other places I've called and even considered flying to told me earmuffs would not be allowed. I figured it would be a waste of a trip if I flew to a location and couldn't wear my earmuffs.

I'm really puzzled by the actual noise level of most MRI's. The few techs I talked to that operated 'pianissimo' MRIs told me they an still be loud and told me "all of are MRI's are about the same noise level" regardless off year or make.

 

I spent quite some time researching this as I did not want to hurt my ears, ever again, even called the MRI operators at a large hospital where they had several MRI machines including the GE Silent and the Toshiba Vantage Galan 3T and the operators told me that he did not believe the GE to be silent at all, although it may be for some special cases I guess

I had a stomach/pancreas scan

I suggest you call the sales office of Canon medical and ask them which hospital installed the Vantage machines and book a session there..it certainly wasn't 98 db at the loudest maybe 80-85 max.

This is the best way to find out where those machines are, I found out they them much closer to my home than I could find from hospital homepages

 

I had a 15 minute MRI under 99 dB (supposedly quiet machine with new tech) with DOUBLE protection and it left me with severe tinnitus and hyperacusis + TTTS.
It got better with time, but it definitely increased previous mild baseline. On best days I now have moderate tinnitus.

I'm compulsively checking this forum everyday for a release date of MuteButton...

 

@Rust I have no way of knowing but given how nervous you were going into the MRI, it seems likely you might just be having an anxiety spike.

We're all different but I've had a bunch of loud head / neck MRIs since getting bad T and none have caused me any problem. Mostly took Valium to help with the claustrophobia, except in the case of a tinnitus DCS research experiment that required 4 head MRIs and wouldn't allow any other drugs...

 

@Bill Bauer if all it took to set you of was a "not very loud sound, briefly" don't you think it's at least possible that it was just the straw that broke the camel's back? you weren't going to spend the rest of your life avoiding brief, quiet sounds, so if that's all it took...

 

Can someone please give me any suggestions as far as how to handle an MRI and MRA? I am having them both done today. Very nervous reading all the stories about how loud the machines can be. Ear plugs??

 

I agree. I've read many stories on here that are very similar. Unless you lived your entire life isolated from noise, you were probably bound to have something else happen that would have induced tinnitus.

It's tantamount to breaking a control arm or tie-rod after running over a small pothole. Were you going to be able to avoid bumps, imperfections, and potholes for the rest of your vehicles life? That component was on its way out, sooner or later it wound have failed.

 

Yup, and I feel the same way about my own situation, though in my case the noise that broke me was probably 105-120db sustained for 2 hours. So, if not for that, it might have been some number of years before I had real problems.

Someone whose trigger is a brief toothbrush vibration near the temporal bone, though? Sounds like they must already have been standing on the very edge of the cliff, else the medical literature would abound with toothbrush horror stories (of which there are none, as far as I can tell).

 

What was the make and model of the MRI? What type of scan was done?

I don't know what to do. I've deliberated over this a lot and still don't know.

 

https://www.healthcare.siemens.com/...mri-scanner/magnetom-avanto/technical-details

It's under 99 dB... But too much vibration.

Brain MRI to rule out acoustic neuroma, high intracranial pressure and any tumors.

Tinnitus was unilateral with high frequency hearing loss only in left ear.

 

I don't see any data on peak noise levels there. MRI manufacturers should be required to publish them.
The most comprehensive list I could find is here, but that is only a sampling of 15 different MRIs. Sequence and field strengths seem to be the biggest factor in noise levels.

I'm really torn.

 

If it helps, I had an MRI scan of the head with no ear protection - besides what they already give you - right after I developed Tinnitus and it didn't cause a spike for me. I didn't even feel like it was very loud. But of course everyone is different.

 

How about taking some prednisone as soon as possible?!

 

I found this data (about dB) on another website and I previously did a chest MRI there without protection and was totally fine.

It was genuinely fine until after several minutes it started new sequence with a lot of vibrations. It was much louder than previous sequence and vibrated the table and subsequently my head a lot.

If you experience such sequence just get up. Don't wait...

Also you can inject yourself right after you get out with 90 mg Prednisone.

 

The MRI was absolutely awful. Just throwing it out there. It was like a torture test of sounds. All different, some louder than others. I came very close to pulling the emergency button at one point. I had the "soundproof" protection things on, but it really wasn't fully soundproof much at all. Terrible experience.

Now I wait and supposedly have some neurologist look at it who will forward the results to my ENT.

 

I'm assuming it's Echo Planar? That's the loudest sequence from what I've read and what I've been told. My MRI does not include Echo Planar, only T1, T2 and SURS.

Can you identify the vibration sound you are talking about in one of these audio clips?

This video has some listed.

Same with this video.

I can find a few other videos of MRI sounds, but none of them explain what sequence the sound is. I wish there was a comprehensive list.

Did you have a pillow or anything underneath your head to absorb vibrations? I can see how that alone would exacerbate things. I've experienced temporary spikes when using a sawzall with double protection, and I think it was the vibrations.

 

@Rust
How are you feeling now? Did the spike go down?