MRI Scan

Overview

Open MRI

WSIB

Medical Legal

Clinical Trials

Locations & Scheduling

Fees

Open MRI

Closed MRI

Unlike its closed counterparts, the Hitachi Elite Open MRI is a patient-friendly machine, open on all sides, allowing you to move about slightly or easily sit up. With no confining tunnels and noisy sounds, it allows you to undergo the test more comfortably.

CML HealthCare Clinic. Hitachi Elite Open MRI machine.

The Hitachi Elite also accommodates those who cannot currently fit into closed tunnels, such as large patients and very muscular athletes. It is also well-suited for handicapped persons and claustrophobics who experience great distress in the tunnel.

For more vulnerable patients, such as children, and those who require additional assistance and encouragement, our Open MRI has the advantage of allowing for human contact. Instead of just being in sight, friends and relatives can hold the hand of a loved one who needs their support.

In the doughnut-shaped style MRI, some patients experience anxiety due to a feeling of being confined. As well, the machine is extremely noisy, to the point where earplugs are offered to patients. In addition, if you experience high anxiety or feelings of claustrophobia, you may feel nauseous and require sedatives.

Since you are not permitted to move, any slight movements will prolong scanning times and reduce image quality, possibly resulting in reports being delayed.

Because movement is not allowed, sedatives are usually given to children. As well, only being able to see parents or guardians, rather than touch them, increases a child’s anxiety.

Because the tunnel in a Closed MRI is an enclosed space, large patients are unable to receive an MRI and are not awarded the same health care as other patients unless they choose the option of an open MRI.