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Getting An MRI Not Exactly Resting At Peace

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By PHILIP MORGAN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 21, 2008

The best way to sanely experience the tunnel of an MRI machine is to keep your eyes closed. I did that for the longest time before curiosity got the best of me. I opened them for an instant, freaked out and shut them again quickly. The white wall of the machine seemed 2 inches from my face, even though it wasn't really that close.

I knew then that my eventual plan for cremation was the right choice. I'm just too claustrophobic for the coffin.

I was getting my first MRI to pinpoint the source of pain in my lower back. I'm lucky to live in the 21st century and have access to such an amazing medical tool, but, geez, it's as if the inventor was going chiefly for weirdness.

It's not only confining, it's noisy, too. Loud knocks and buzzes start and stop, start and stop, several times over during a half-hour. I opened and shut my eyes one more time and decided not to do it anymore. I was afraid I might work myself into a panic. OK, a bigger panic.

I realized it could be an effective torture tool, and one far more humane than water-boarding. It would work best if the detainee's eyes could be kept open. Once the prisoner spilled the beans, the doctor could present him with a helpful list of his internal maladies.

Radiologist Carlos R. Martinez estimates that 5 percent of patients are too claustrophobic to undergo a test in a closed MRI machine. About 10 to 15 percent feel claustrophobic but go ahead with the test.

"There are other people for whom this is a revelation," says the doctor. "People who have never been claustrophobic before, they realize they're claustrophobic once they're in the MRI machine."

For patients who feel trepidation, many doctors offer a Valium or Xanax an hour or so before they go into the MRI. (The patients have to bring someone to drive them home, however.)

The closed machines tend to provide a slightly better image than the open machines, which were designed to lessen the feeling of confinement.

"There are some newer scanners that are higher field strength that are open, and there some that are quasi-open, with a short tunnel," Martinez says. "It gives you the impression you have more space."

I'd still have to keep my eyes closed.

Reporter Philip Morgan can be reached at (813) 259-7609 or pmorgan@tampatrib.com.

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