I've had a CAT scan and my mom's had several MRI's over the years, I'll give you what little information I have.
Yes, CAT's are horizontal scans, but it's still rather comprehensive, just not quite as detailed. In a nutshell, if they're looking at a general problem, you'll probably be getting a CAT scan first to see where the problem is in a certain area.
MRI's narrow it down and are more area-specific, because the image is rendered in 3-D. Once said image is rendered, the program that the specialists use allows them to take a look at the image from all sides, by rotating it in all directions, 360 degrees.
And in answer to the speculation: Yes, they're faster (Where CAT scans can take about 3 hours, tops, MRI's take an hour, give or take); yes, they're more detailed (as I mentioned above); but as for safer... that's still debatable.
My mom noticed something the second or third time she went in or an MRI, a 'panic button' of sorts for the claustrophobic patients that can't handle it. CAT scans, on the other paw, don't have them (or didn't, last time I had one, which was about 5 years ago). Basically, if you start feeling claustrophobic, you hit that, they pause the rendering on the screen and let you out until you can handle it again for a while (These are the rare exceptions to the 'MRI's take about an hour' rule that I mentioned).
I've had a CAT scan and my mom's had several MRI's over the years, I'll give you what little information I have.
Yes, CAT's are horizontal scans, but it's still rather comprehensive, just not quite as detailed. In a nutshell, if they're looking at a general problem, you'll probably be getting a CAT scan first to see where the problem is in a certain area.
MRI's narrow it down and are more area-specific, because the image is rendered in 3-D. Once said image is rendered, the program that the specialists use allows them to take a look at the image from all sides, by rotating it in all directions, 360 degrees.
And in answer to the speculation: Yes, they're faster (Where CAT scans can take about 3 hours, tops, MRI's take an hour, give or take); yes, they're more detailed (as I mentioned above); but as for safer... that's still debatable.
My mom noticed something the second or third time she went in or an MRI, a 'panic button' of sorts for the claustrophobic patients that can't handle it. CAT scans, on the other paw, don't have them (or didn't, last time I had one, which was about 5 years ago). Basically, if you start feeling claustrophobic, you hit that, they pause the rendering on the screen and let you out until you can handle it again for a while (These are the rare exceptions to the 'MRI's take about an hour' rule that I mentioned).
Wuff... hope that helped.
Tlaren }:=8}