October 14, 2008

Are MRI Scans To Be Relied On By Chicago and Illinois Doctors?

When you go for an MRI at a local Chicago hospital you expect that the technician interpreting it will give a clear and correct diagnosis. However, oftentimes the MRI and other scans that are the basis for the medical treatment and care prescribed by our doctors are simply not reliable because of radiology errors.

xray%201.jpgIn one of our cases, a treating radiologist viewing an MRI scan noted certain changes in her lumbar spine. But later, this same patient was re-examined by another orthopedic surgeon who ordered new scans. And this time around the radiology report found none of those subtle changes. The meaning of all of that is that the treatment plan laid out by our client's first treating physician relied on scans that were flawed. The images seen were different on the second set of MRI scans.

Did the radiologist make a mistake? Not really, according the second doctor. But the scans themselves can be different. What's sobering to know is that some MRI scans and other scans, X-Ray and CT can appear different because of the quality of the images. Even academic radiologists say that different scans of the same part of the body can reveal very different findings.

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