MRI Questions

bowoky

I'm getting an MRI on Friday after Mammo and US came up normal. I have skin tethering, pain, and a lump that fluctuates with my cycle.

I'm concerned about the contrast dye for the MRI, Is that something that could be poisonous for my body? Also, what are the chances I could have a false positive? I'm also having to wait two weeks for my follow up appointment and that makes me nervous.

I posted on the not diagnosed, but worried section and moved here since I'm now in the testing faze. Hope all my questions aren't annoying. Just finding it hard to function like a normal human being with all this lingering.

MelissaDallas

The dyes are generally safe. There have been some studies that seem to suggest that the contrast may accumulate in tissues for people who have multiple or many tests with contrast, but that is not settled science. I certainly wouldn't worry about one MRi.

MRIs are very nonspecific, so they do tend to generate a lot of false positives, with resultant biopsies to rule stuff out. On the plus side they have a very low, like less than 5%, rate of false negatives.

bowoky

I guess I really shouldn't be googling the dyes because there's some scary information out there. I'm an extremely healthy person and the idea of putting a heavy metal in my blood stream scares me.

Eian01

The waiting time is always painful, however the procedures are safe but there are chances of false positive. Hope things will turn out well

gb2115

I think I read somewhere that the risks for MRI contrast are much lower than that of CT contrast. They will do kidney function tests prior to make sure your kidneys can clear the dye. Don't worry. I did two MRIs and they were way easier than some of the other tests!!!