When Should You Get An MRI Scan Of Your Head?

When Should I Get an MRI on My Head? A Comprehensive Guide

A head MRI scan, which is also known as a brain MRI scan, is the most detailed medical imaging technique for capturing images of the inside of your head.

This includes your brain, its coverings (meninges) and its blood supply, as well as your skull, facial bones, eyes, inner ear, fat, muscle, connective tissue and nerves that supply your head.

Through a combination of powerful magnets, which create a strong magnetic field, and radio waves, a head MRI scan creates high-resolution 3D images of the structures within your head.

So, if you’re wondering, “Should I get an MRI on my brain or head?”, it is time to explore the answer here. We will discuss when it is appropriate, what conditions a head MRI scan can detect, how to prepare for your head MRI scan and alternative scan options for imaging your head.

Symptoms Indicating a Need for a Head MRI Scan

A doctor, usually a neurologist (a doctor who specialises in treating the nervous system), may recommend you have a head MRI scan if you have symptoms that could stem from medical conditions or injuries affecting your brain or other structures within your head.

These symptoms include:

changes in your cognitive abilities or behaviour
persistent headaches or migraines
seizures
severe fatigue and weakness
severe and frequent episodes of dizziness.

They may also recommend a head MRI scan if you develop:

hearing loss that cannot be explained with standard hearing tests
vision problems that cannot be explained with standard eye tests
imbalances in certain hormones regulated by parts of your brain called the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland.

Emergency Situations

If you develop sudden symptoms related to the head, such as after a fall or other traumatic injury, or due to a suspected stroke, you will not initially have a head MRI scan, but a head CT scan instead.

This is because a CT scan is much faster than an MRI scan. Consequently, it is the preferred imaging choice when diagnoses need to be made quickly. This could include identifying a bleed in the brain or fracture of the bones in the head.

How MRI Helps Diagnose Head Conditions

An MRI scan creates highly detailed images of the inside of your body by affecting the water molecules within your tissues.

Specifically, the magnetic field created by the strong magnets of the MRI machine lines up tiny particles called protons that are part of the hydrogen atoms found in water.

Bursts of radio waves released by the MRI scanning machine will then knock these protons out of alignment. When the protons realign according to the magnetic field, they release energy detected by sensors in the magnetic resonance imaging machine.

How quickly the protons realign and how much energy is released varies between tissues, including your brain tissues. Consequently, an MRI scanner can detect subtle differences between different tissues and within them. This could include picking up any differences between diseased tissue and healthy tissue.

This ability to detect minute differences means that a head MRI scan can detect the early signs of disease and injury. In certain cases, these early signs may be missed by a head CT scan. This is due to artefacts (imaging errors) that can arise from how bony structures appear in CT images.

Common Conditions Diagnosed With a Head MRI Scan

A head MRI scan is often used to help diagnose neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, hydrocephalus and brain tumours. This can also include structural abnormalities present from birth known as congenital abnormalities. This could include Chiari malformation and holoprosencephaly.

A brain MRI scan can additionally be used in the first few days after a stroke to identify any build-up of fluid (oedema). It will also identify which areas of the brain have been damaged. Brain inflammation (encephalitis) can be diagnosed with a head MRI scan too.

Certain causes of hearing loss and vision loss can also be diagnosed with a head MRI scan. These include tumours that compress the auditory nerve or optic nerve, retinoblastoma (a tumour of the light-sensitive tissue of the eye) and optic neuritis.

Risks And Benefits of Head MRI Scans

Benefits

Head MRI scans provide highly detailed MRI images of the tissues and structures within your head. This is to help ensure you get an accurate diagnosis as early as possible.

At Vista Health, you do not need to wait for a referral from a doctor or other healthcare professional as you can self-refer. This means you can get the clarity you need as soon as possible.

What’s more, MRI scans are safe, painless and non-invasive, and are, therefore, considered low-risk.

Risks

For some individuals who struggle with claustrophobia, an MRI scan can cause anxiety as it involves lying on a scan table. This is then slid into a tunnel-like structure.

Fortunately, MRI machines allow for two-way communication between yourself and the healthcare professional conducting your scan (a radiographer). This means they can help calm your nerves and, if necessary, you can tell them to pause or stop the scan.

Head MRI scans that require the use of a contrast agent come with a very small risk of developing an allergic reaction to the contrast agent. For MRI scans, the contrast agent used is the rare earth metal gadolinium. Gadolinium improves the contrast and, therefore, the clarity of the images captured.

Allergic reactions usually develop immediately or very soon after, which is why you will be asked to remain at the scanning facility for 30 minutes after your scan so you can be closely monitored.

Preparing for Your MRI Appointment

If you are having an MRI scan with a contrast agent, you will usually be asked to stop eating for 4 hours preceding your scan. You will still be allowed to drink clear fluids during this time.

On the day of your scan, you will be asked to fill in a health questionnaire to double-check if it is safe to go ahead with the scan.

For a head MRI scan, you will usually be able to wear your own clothes and will not need to change into a hospital gown. In this case, you will need to make sure you do not wear any clothes containing metal parts. This includes zips, buttons, clasps or bra underwires.

You should also remove any metal items from your body including hair clips, piercings, watches, dentures, jewellery and any medical devices attached to the outside of your body. This can include glucose monitors or tethered insulin pumps.

Metal items can interfere with the clarity of the images captured and if metal that is not compatible with an MRI scan is present in your body, it can shift or overheat.

If you are feeling anxious about your scan, you can bring a friend or family member with you.

Discussing MRI Results With Your Doctor

After your MRI scan, a doctor who specialises in diagnosing and treating conditions using medical imaging (a radiologist) will write a report on your scan results.

This report alongside images from your MRI scan will be sent to you, your GP and any specialist doctor involved in your care. Your doctor will then explain your results and any next steps that are needed during your follow-up appointment.

If you have a private MRI scan at Vista Health, we will deliver your report as quickly as possible so you can get clarity on your symptoms sooner. We aim to deliver within 3 working days.

Alternatives to an MRI Scan

An MRI scan is not always the most suitable scan. As mentioned earlier, in emergency situations, a CT scan is faster and is, therefore, often the recommended imaging tool.

An MRI scan may also not be suitable if you have certain metal implants. This includes aneurysm clips in your head, cochlear implants, nerve stimulators or a non-MRI-compatible cardiac pacemaker.

In the above-mentioned cases, your doctor may recommend a CT scan instead as CT scans do not use magnets and, therefore, do not pose a risk to metal implants.

Is a Head MRI Scan Right for You?

If you have any concerning symptoms, such as those mentioned earlier, including persistent headaches, dizziness, fatigue, seizures or severe weakness, it is important to have these symptoms investigated.

At Vista Health, we understand that dealing with the anxiety of unexplained symptoms can be challenging. To eliminate the wait for a doctor's appointment, we provide private MRI scans without the need for a referral from a doctor or other healthcare professional.

You can self-refer to have your symptoms investigated with a head MRI scan. If you have no symptoms but want a comprehensive health check for peace of mind, you can opt for a full-body MRI scan.

To secure your MRI scan and find out where you stand with your health, book a private MRI scan with Vista Health today.