Information for Patients

Cardiac MRI is performed to help your physician detect or monitor cardiac disease by allowing the following:

• Evaluation anatomy and function of the heart chambers, valves, and blood vessels.
• Diagnosis of various cardiovascular disorders
• Evaluation of the effects of coronary artery disease and/or myocardial infarction
• Treatment planning
• Monitoring disease progression over time

Cardiac MRI creates both still and moving pictures of your heart and major blood vessels. Doctors use cardiac MRI to get pictures of the beating heart and to look at its structure and function. These images can help them decide the best way to treat people who have heart problems.

No special dietary preparation is required for the scan, so you may eat and drink normally and continue with any prescribed medication. It is important that there is no metal on your clothing, so if possible please try and come to your appointment wearing leisure clothes, for example tracksuit, leggings, etc. If this is not possible, changing facilities and hospitals gowns are available. Please also refrain from wearing any eye make-up as this may affect the images.

You will be asked to remove any jewellery, hairpins, eyeglasses, watches, wigs, dentures, hearing aids or underwire bras.

An MRI is a very safe procedure, but patients with heart pacemakers and certain surgical implants cannot be scanned.  You will be asked questions regarding this before your scan to make sure that it is safe for you to be scanned in one of our scanners.  You will be asked if you have one of the following:

• Metallic joint prostheses

• Artificial heart valves

• Implantable heart defibrillator

• Pacemaker

• Metal clips

• Cochlear implants

• A bullet, shrapnel or any other type of metal fragment.

If you cannot have an MRI scan, there are alternatives:  CT and ultrasound scans are possible as well. 

Sometimes we need to give you an injection of contrast dye before the scan.  This contains a substance called gadolinium, which some people are allergic to.  Very rarely can it cause an allergic reaction with is similar to hay fever.  We also will be checking your kidney function since the dye is eliminated from the body through the kidneys.  In certain, yet very rare instances this may cause damage to the kidneys.

When you arrive, report to X-ray Central Reception (Area 4), a member of staff will check your details and go over the safety screening list with you. You will be asked to remove all loose metal objects such as watches, jewellery and credit cards - a locker will be provided.

You will then be taken into the scan room and the radiographer will ask you to lie on the scanner bed and position you correctly.  The scanner is a large cylinder with a hollow space running through the middle which is open at both ends. Some light equipment will be placed on your chest. 

Once you are set up within the scanner, the radiographer will go into the adjoining room (where the control equipment is located) to speak to you there. There is a large window, and the radiographers can see you throughout the whole examination.

You will need to keep very still during the scan to avoid blurring the images. Sometimes there are periods of time where the scanner is quiet, but we ask you to try to keep still during these times as well.   We will ask you to hold your breath for a moment (roughly 10-15 seconds). It may be difficult, but do the best you can!  Your cardiac MRI might also include a stress test to detect blockages in your coronary arteries. If so, you'll receive medicines to increase the blood flow in your heart or to increase your heart rate. You may feel anxious and feel like something is going wrong, however this is normal.

Do not forget, a radiographer will be able to see and hear you throughout the entire study and will be monitoring your heart rate.   The scan is completely painless.  Patients report that the most difficult part is keeping still. Others report problems with the loud, banging noise and other still about the narrowness of the tunnel.  However, we will give you headphones to reduce the noise, and we suggest you shut your eyes throughout the whole procedure.  If you wish, you may bring a CD to be played during the examination. Don't worry, though you will be monitored by the radiographer at all times and will be able to communicate via an intercom. The radiographer will be able to see and hear you throughout the entire study. Also, you always have an "alert button" that gives a signal to the radiographer that there is a problem, but we will try to make you as comfortable as possible for the length of the scan.

The scan will take between 30 and 60 minutes, but allow yourself a little more time, as emergency cases do sometimes have to take priority.

Once the scan is completed it is safe for you to drive. You may continue to eat and drink normally.

The results of your examination will not be given to you on the same day, but you will be told how to get the results. A copy of them will be forwarded to your consultant.