How long, on average, does it take to interpret an MRI?

Protoman2050 · Joined: 23 Sep 2009 Posts: 1 Location: Long Beach, CA

How long, on average does it take for a radiologist to interpret an MRI? 30 minutes? How do they look through hundreds of slices without taking 5 hours?

For detecting an myocardial infarct/ischemia, would FLAIR or delayed contrast-enhanced inversion recovery gradient echo be more accurate? Which would be faster to run?

Why do radiologists order 5-10 sequences? Wouldn't 1-2 be faster and allow more patient volume? If you could pick only two sequences to run, which would they be?

Also, can non-invasive cardiovascular technologists get MRI training, so they can perform cardiac MRIs?

John Posh · Joined: 09 Oct 2009 Posts: 1

The length of time needed for a rad to read an MRI varies with the rad and type of exam. I know some Neuro guys that read 100+ cases in a day with very high accuracy and some body folks that can not get above 30 due to the volume if images and sequences.

1-2 sequences would indeed be faster than some greater number but 2 sequences is rarely adequate for anything these days. Too much liability associuated with missed pathology and not following standard of care / commonly accepted practices etc.

As for the cardiac sequences and training.... much more complicated. Like all body parts the heart requires multiple sequences in multiple planes to be assesses effectively. FLAIR would be quicker than perfusion imaged w delay but faster is not always the only factor.
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John Posh, R.T.,(R)(MR)
Director, MRI Education
University of Pennsylvania
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