Poll: Has an MRI Spiked Your Tinnitus and/or Hyperacusis?

[heartofalioness]

I think my tinnitus spiked and hyperacusis worsened 3-4 days after I had an MRI. I had earplugs on.

 

[Rajin]

Yes, I didn't know MRI was loud, I had expensive earplugs I bought to protect from noise, used the foam plug they give you and I put it on wrong.

When I came out I taught I was going to die. My entire head was ringing. Honestly I will not take it again. I'm trying to say healthy now . So I don't even have to drink any medication, take MRI , have any operation. So afraid of ringing getting louder. Feel better.

 

[heartofalioness]

Hello! You experienced the ringing all day after it? Did the ringing lower in a matter of days, weeks, or months? I was only able to hear the MRI when I yawned a few times during my time in the machine. I heard the loud sound through my right ear. I was listening to music through earphones after my appointment, and the sound sounded cheap in my ears. Don't know if it was a illusion, cause my phone tends to act weird. It's been 3 months since I had that MRI for my ear sensitivity to sound. So far it's gotten a tad worse. My MRI only showed a sinus infection, and I've been having them and bad allergies since.

My ears seem spiked and muffled a bit right now.

I miss my lowered tinnitus and hidden hyperacusis!

 

[victoria9273]

Around 7~8 percent of peeple have an 10 decibels of hearing loss after the procedure. The sound of MRI is also enough to cause a temporary threshold shift that may or may not be permanent. So the noise is not something comfortable even if people have their ear protection on.

 

[Juan]

An MRI can result into temporary or permanent hearing loss. When you are into the tube, if your hearing starts ringing really loud, then you know that's bad. But the way you describe it, you seem to have coped with it pretty well.

 

[Tamara]

I have tinnitus and hyperacusis after MRI. Four years and a half. I didn't have tinnitus and hyperacusis before doing the MRI. I've talked about my case several times here, and I still see people who have done MRI afterwards and keep regretting. People are not to blame because they do not know, but have to search. You will not think doctors know, very few know, only if it is very specialized.

 

[Johan_L]

I have bad hyperacusis and am considering MRI for a knee issue. They have an "Open MRI". Does anybody know how they compare to regular MRIs in terms of noise? I know they are less claustrophobic, but that's not an issue for me...

 

[Marc22]

Never take an MRI! Even if your life may depend on it. There is a good chance that you will get severe hyperacusis, which may eventually do you in anyway. That is being faced with a pretty hopeless dilemma unfortunately, part of living with hyperacusis.

I know that in at least some medical situations a CT scan will do, even if it is not as accurate. That is what I decided when faced with the suggestion by a doctor to have an MRI to check out whether I had a mild stroke once. I refused and had the CT scan. ( BTW, no stroke was discovered)

Marco

 

[1000]

Not in my case. But at the same time I hear a very LOUD tinnitus, I don't think it could go louder than what is.

 

[Juan]

I have bad hyperacusis and am considering MRI for a knee issue. They have an "Open MRI". Does anybody know how they compare to regular MRIs in terms of noise? I know they are less claustrophobic, but that's not an issue for me...

It should be less claustrophobic and maybe somewhat lower, since the magnets and everything wont be as close to your head, and you wont be inside the tube, so less reverberation.. but anyway loud. I think the MRI can be set for a lower resolution, which could men lower volume, but the test is just loud.

 

[Gav]

Open MRI's are quieter than the tunnel ones as the noise is less confined. They are still noisy though.

If you have to go for an MRI, then I'd suggest you get the model name of the MRI unit you are going to use so you can search for it online. If it is quieter than a normal MRI, the manufacturer will be listing this as a key feature in the spec sheet.

I've been referred for a brain scan, which can be especially noisy. After much searching, I've found a clinic with a Toshiba Vantage Titan 1.5T. This has a noise suppressor (magnets are in a vacuum instead of air to limit sound transmission). Max decibel rating of 75db.

There are other models that are quiet as well, e.g. Siemens Quiet Suite and GE's Silent Scan, but I couldn't find a clinic locally with one of these.

Remember also... you can always stop the MRI midway if it feels too loud. You'll know if it's not right for you.

 

[Juan]

I've been referred for a brain scan, which can be especially noisy. After much searching, I've found a clinic with a Toshiba Vantage Titan 1.5T. This has a noise suppressor (magnets are in a vacuum instead of air to limit sound transmission). Max decibel rating of 75db.

Please tell us about your experience with the Toshiba Vantage Titan 1.5T after you have the scan.

I havent read much about quiet MRIs but I did read that the noise levels also depend on the kind of image quality you want to obtain, and also whether the doctor wants to have 3D images etc.. at any rate, I dont know much about the technical features of MRI machines.

 

[Gav]

Will do. It's in a few weeks, so I'll report back then.

You are correct about image quality and noise levels, which does have me worried. The radiographer told me that even though the Titan unit is very quiet, a brain scan is the noisiest scan they do. I'll be hopping straight out of there if it is...

 

[Gav]

Okay, so I had the MRI scan yesterday. It was quieter than other MRI units I've tried, but even with two layers of ear protection it was still loud.

They did multiple scans, all with different sounds and tones. Most of these were fine... there was just one jackhammer sounding scan that I felt was on the edge. At a guess, I would say the scanner hit 95 db, possibly 100 db.

It's given me a small T spike, which I'm sure is temporary. I'd use the scanner again if I had no other choice, but I'll be continuing my search for a quieter MRI scanner in the meantime.

 

[AmericanJosh]

Open MRI's are quieter than the tunnel ones as the noise is less confined. They are still noisy though.

If you have to go for an MRI, then I'd suggest you get the model name of the MRI unit you are going to use so you can search for it online. If it is quieter than a normal MRI, the manufacturer will be listing this as a key feature in the spec sheet.

I've been referred for a brain scan, which can be especially noisy. After much searching, I've found a clinic with a Toshiba Vantage Titan 1.5T. This has a noise suppressor (magnets are in a vacuum instead of air to limit sound transmission). Max decibel rating of 75db.

There are other models that are quiet as well, e.g. Siemens Quiet Suite and GE's Silent Scan, but I couldn't find a clinic locally with one of these.

Remember also... you can always stop the MRI midway if it feels too loud. You'll know if it's not right for you.

Here are two articles on quiet MRIs:

1)
QUIET MRI REDUCING ANXIETY FOR PEDIATRIC PATIENTS

Originally published on December 10, 2015
Most recently updated on May 13, 2016
Tags:

• Research News and Reports

BOARDMAN, Ohio - Fourteen year-old Leon Daugherty II of East Liverpool is no stranger to MRI's.

"The first time I did this, it took us five and a half hours to get done," said Leon Daugherty II.

The first time Leon had an MRI performed on his brain was five years ago when he was diagnosed with a slow moving brain tumor that had wrapped around his optic nerve. He's had his fair share of MRI scans since then, tracking the tumor's progress. He learned at his most recently scan, he will have to undergo brain surgery for the second time in five years.

"Any muscle movement can distort the machine's sight and they will re-start the scan and some can be 15 minutes long. So, you mess that up twice, that is an extra half hour," said Daugherty.

Recognizing comfort leads to better scans, Akron Children's upgraded its MRI technology, minimizing the loud sounds that come from the machine by up to 97% with an application known as Quiet Suite.

"In an MRI scan, it is very, very important to have the patient be very, very still for a long period of time. And so, having that Quiet Suite technology really, really helps with that goal, keeping them still. The more still we can keep them, the better imaging we get, the more detailed imaging we can get," said radiologist Dr. Richard McDonald with Akron Children's Hospital Mahoning Valley.

The hospital says the new technology has resulted in less sedations and fewer re-scans, creating a more comfortable patient experience.

Click here for the original article.


TECHNOLOGY
2) GE's Silent MRI Scanner Has Hit The Market


Quiet scans for everyone!

By Shaunacy Ferro September 12, 2013



View attachment 13700
MRI SCANNER

Courtesy GE Healthcare

MRI scanners do a good job of imaging the brain to help doctors find potential health problems. But the experience of actually sitting in one leaves something to be desired. Aside from being cramped and claustrophobic, MRI scanners can get LOUD.

Case in point, listen to this:

View attachment 13701
GE Healthcare says they're ushering in a future full of silent MRIs with Silent Scan, a new way to reduce noise in MRI scanning that just hit the commercial market. The press materials are a little coy about how this actually works, but say that it's a "radically new" way to acquire magnetic resonance data: "in combination with proprietary high-fidelity gradient and [radiofrequency] system electronics, noise is not merely dampened; it is virtually eliminated at the source."

GizMag explained it this way:

First, acoustic noise is essentially eliminated by using a new 3D scanning and reconstruction technique called Silenz. When the Silenz protocol is used in combination with GE's new high-fidelity MRI gradient and RF system electronics, the MRI scanning noise is largely eliminated at its source.

Basically, it's a software update that changes the way the scanner acquires the image.

According to GE, the typical MRI scanner generates 110 decibels of noise when it's hard at work, which is about the same noise level as a rock concert or a steel mill. One study found that certain MRI scanners could get up to 118 decibels at their loudest point. The Silent Scanner system, which reduces the volume of the scanner to normal background noise levels, quiet enough to have a conversation over. It's now commercially available in their 1.5T and 3.0T scanners (the T refers to the unit tesla, the way to measure the strength of a magnetic field), and has been used in a hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Listen to GE's simulation, compared to the one above.


Marco

I had a brain and neck MRI today using the silent scan. IT WAS NOT SILENT. That name is a monomer. It should be called reduced sound, but most scan sequences were well above 4 decibles over ambient sound. Some were very loud and I was wearing ear plugs along with having them pack the side of my head and ear area with padding to further block the sounds. I don't know how GE can get away with such blatant false advertising.

 

[Tanni]

It's weird - I had an MRI scan last year and I can't even remember if there was any sound at all, never mind loud sound. I certainly didn't experience any spikes afterwards. I had my scan done at a fancy private hospital so maybe they had some special quiet version? I remember they gave me over-ear protection.

 

[vaseto99]

 

[Contrast]

why is that the default, you can't use the forum to learn.

 

[GregCA]

why is that the default, you can't use the forum to learn.

Not only that. It encourages people to put in a bogus answer just to see results. Here's the current tally.