This should be easy, but chasing it down on the web yields mixed answers from people whose expertise I can’t evaluate. Question: When I look at an MRI image, is right on the right, or are the sides reversed? Thanks.
I believe it varies depending on how the view is taken. It’s usually on the MRI isn’t it?
I was taught in class that CT Scans are taken from a “worm’s eye view” (So you’re looking up at the person- so the left side is on the right side of the image, and the right side is on the left portion of the image. But i don’t know how that works on MRI’s if it’s the same, or if it’s reversible).
I’d assume that the MRI would be labeled to try to center it. That or look for the landmarks which can be used to try to see if it’s normally on the left or the right side.
Sorry i can’t be more helpful.
I’ve got one right here, and there’s a big fat “L” on the right side of the image, so the “worm’s eye” view seems to be the standard for MRI as well as CT.
More to the point, it’s also the outside observer’s point of view as if they were looking at you directly. Just because the data gathered in a scan can be rotated, flipped and flopped any which way before it’s “printed” to film or displayed on a screen, doesn’t mean it’s useful to a surgeon unless they’re inside your spine, looking out.
The normal convention for most studies is for sagittal planes to have the anterior (front, rostral, ventral) direction on the left; axial (horizontal planes) have anterior superior with the right side on the left, and coronal sections have the right side on the left, also with anterior superior.
In general it’s as if you are looking at the patient face to face (coronal views), from the left (sagittal views) and from the feet if he’s lying down (axial views).
Digital radiology software allows easy flipping of these views.
Thank you. We were looking at a small, poorly marked image from an MRI of the brain and could not tell on which side we were seeing the phenomenon.