# MRI's are loud! (Or, House lied to me) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 15, 2008, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461 "2008-05-15T17:26:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/1 "2008-05-15T17:26:12Z")
For those that are interested, [I had my breast coil MRI today.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=467028) Got there at 6:30am, got taken back promptly at my appointment time of 7am. Now, in _House_, the patient lies on his back, is put inside the tube, and more often than not, suffers a seizure/heart attack/rectal bleeding/collapsed lung. TWoP calls it the MRI of…DOOM! What they don’t show is just how godawful loud they are! Anyhow, I undressed, put on a top and pants (that were too big for me, hee hee hee) and they started an IV in my arm. I laid face down, they asked me if I wanted a blanket (I said, sure, why not) and then I was asked what music I liked to listen to. I said country, so they put headphones on me and I was lifted up into the tube. I was given a bulb to squeeze in case I started to panic/seize/have a heart attack/etc. Then, I had five different scans, which, funny enough, each had their own different clanging. The first one reminded me of a red alert during one of the Star Trek movies. The music was fine, although I did not really need to hear Tim McGraw’s \*Live Like you were Dying \* song…slightly inappropriate, I thought. But the headphones did not completely drown out the sound of the banging, so I shudder to think just how loud MRIs really are! They got great pictures, told me I did wonderfully, and next week…the two oncologists. To be continued… ---
**Author:** ![Kuboydal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecb155/32.png) [@Kuboydal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kuboydal)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/2 "2008-05-15T17:48:57Z")
It’s some small comfort that you had some music. I recall being in one for quite some time, mesmerized and terrified at the same time. It was cold, loud, and incomprehensible. A little CCR would have gone a long way. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/3 "2008-05-15T17:57:42Z")
I just had an MRI on Tuesday. Loud? Oh hell yeah! And music was _not_ an option! I asked about it, and they said they had music available when the center first opened, but there were “issues” with volume control, so they canned the music! However, Valium _was_ an option, and I took that. Ten mg of Valium. Who needs music when you’re that busy humming to yourself? 😃 We’re still pulling for you! ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/4 "2008-05-15T18:11:09Z")
[House]Everybody lies.[/House] ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/5 "2008-05-15T18:38:11Z")
I don’t seem to suffer from claustrophobia, so I just lay there with my eyes closed, hoping the clips in my breast weren’t metal. I remembered the guy in the MRI of…DOOM who swallowed a key. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/6 "2008-05-15T18:51:15Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] I don’t seem to suffer from claustrophobia, so I just lay there with my eyes closed, hoping the clips in my breast weren’t metal. I remembered the guy in the MRI of…DOOM who swallowed a key. :eek: [/QUOTE] Speaking of which – headphones are usually full of metal. And magnets! How do they get them to work in a big EM field? Do they use the cheesy headphones they used to use on airplanes that were essentially hollow tubes (e.g. one step up from tin cans with strings attached)? ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/7 "2008-05-15T19:09:30Z")
[We were just talking about the noise of MRIs over in IMHO a couple of days ago.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=467738) ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/8 "2008-05-15T19:19:14Z")
[QUOTE=cochrane] [House]Everybody lies.[/House] [/QUOTE] Well done. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/9 "2008-05-15T19:23:45Z")
[QUOTE=Finagle] Speaking of which – headphones are usually full of metal. And magnets! How do they get them to work in a big EM field? Do they use the cheesy headphones they used to use on airplanes that were essentially hollow tubes (e.g. one step up from tin cans with strings attached)? [/QUOTE] No, these were pretty good, radio TV talk show host cover the whole ear type of headphones. They weren’t Bose Noise Cancelling headphones, and they did have a sort of throwaway pad over the earpads, I’m assuming for sanitary reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/10 "2008-05-15T19:28:59Z")
You guys must have been on old machines, because I also had an MRI on Tuesday, and I slept through the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/11 "2008-05-15T20:40:02Z")
When I had mine for a brain scan, I was so out of it on Vicodan that I slept through most of it. It was very loud, and that’s about all that I remember. (I had a small brain bleed, and was in some pain.) ---
**Author:** ![5que](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/3bc359/32.png) [@5que](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5que)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/12 "2008-05-15T20:51:01Z")
I had a head one done a couple of years ago, and though I am not claustrophobic, I couldn’t open my eyes more than once with the machine seemingly 1 cm from the tip of my nose. And it was pretty loud, though what bothered me more is that the noise wasn’t consistent. Start-Stop-Different-Start-Stop-Different Again-etc. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/13 "2008-05-15T22:09:43Z")
First off, m’dear, as I’ve said many times before. _House_ is to medicine as the game _Operation!_ is to surgery. Second, yes, indeed they are loud, and tight. I wasn’t bothered so much by the noise, but the one I was in had a mirror to give the illusion of more room. No one told me about it and it nearly scared the crap out of me when I suddenly saw this face an inch from my own, 'sept it was my face. :smack: I was a test volunteer for some new software. It was a cervical (neck) scan. They had to start over twice, because I fell asleep and my chin dropped into the scanning field. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/14 "2008-05-16T00:04:03Z")
I didn’t mind the noise so much with mine, as I did the fact that it smelled funny, like somebody’d lost their cookies in it. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/15 "2008-05-16T00:04:51Z")
Sheesh! I had one two years ago. Had music. Didn’t hear any noise. I’m not the least bit claustrophobic, had no porblems. Are all of them noisy these days? And, WHY? ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/16 "2008-05-16T00:48:13Z")
Good luck on your test results, **ivylass**. Speaking as somebody who does medical billing, I hope your insurance is happy with it — most of them, in my experience, hate paying for breast MRIs, and they tend to stall and hem and haw and scuff their feet when it comes to writing the check. ---
**Author:** ![Ducktail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/43a26b/32.png) [@Ducktail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ducktail)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/17 "2008-05-16T04:01:26Z")
I had an MRI for a brain scan in second grade. Well, actually, I had one for no apparent reason other than it being at the medical office where my father worked and an impending glasses prescription and the spirit of “Why the hell not?” that had led my toddler self to believe that getting blood drawn was good fun. I remember absolutely nothing objectionable about the whole thing–no claustrophobia or loud noises or anything. The whole thing was mildly entertaining, and I recall them throwing in a few scans of the insides of some of my toys along with my own. Not sure how they managed that–surely brain scans of Skeletor action figures are a waste of resources? ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/18 "2008-05-16T05:22:12Z")
It’s been a while since [this igNoble Prize winning study](http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/319/7225/1596) was conducted. Due to the noise, the research was only possible due to the invention of ED drugs. But newer “open” MRI systems should allow a wider range of positions. We need _more_ fooling around with MRI machines. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/19 "2008-05-16T06:33:30Z")
[QUOTE=samclem] Are all of them noisy these days? And, WHY? [/QUOTE] Newer ones with stronger magnets will probably make more noise, but some of the newer designs are better at reducing the noise. It’s probably a wash. As for why they’re noisy - well, it’s really complicated stuff… > [@Quiet MRI with novel acoustic noise reduction](#): > > It is well known that this noise is caused by vibration of the gradient coil due to the Lorentz forces generated by the current in the gradient coil, which is placed in a static magnetic field. (Full abstract [here.](http://www.springerlink.com/content/w81734623547v586/)) > [@Active-passive gradient shielding for MRI acoustic noise reduction](#): > > An important source of MRI acoustic noise - magnet cryostat warm-bore vibrations caused by eddy-current-induced forces (Full abstract [here.](http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/110474013/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0)) So, why is the gradient coil vibrating? Same basic physics behind loudspeakers - a changing current in a magnetic field will cause the wire carrying that current to move. The level of current and the strength of the magnetic field are both thousands of times stronger than what’s in your home stereo speakers, so the noise is louder. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2008, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461/20 "2008-05-16T07:20:13Z")
I had an MRI in 2004, to find the hernia my doctor insisted didn’t exist. I do remember that it was very loud. But, the bed/table thingie was very flat and hard, and they put a wedge shaped pillow under my legs. That combination meant that for the first time in months, the pain in my back was gone so I didn’t even notice the noise, or the claustrophobia. I fell alseep. They did offer me music and I chose Barry Manilow, thinking it would soothe the claustrophobic panic which never happened. They didn’t use headphones. The music was piped right into the tube. I could barely hear it over the clanging. It didn’t matter though because, as I said, I fell asleep. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mris-are-loud-or-house-lied-to-me/449461.md?page=2)