par Hermanus, Nicole 
;Cornil, Arnaud ;Damry, Nasroolla ;D'haens, Jean-Henri
Référence Reanimation Urgences, 7, 4, page (403-410)
Publication Publié, 1999-07
;Cornil, Arnaud ;Damry, Nasroolla ;D'haens, Jean-Henri Référence Reanimation Urgences, 7, 4, page (403-410)
Publication Publié, 1999-07
Article révisé par les pairs
| Résumé : | In order to assess medical costs, knowledge of the respective features of the various medical imaging techniques available on the market is essential. The chosen system should allow optimal diagnostic investigations to be performed for a given disease in a particular clinical context. Our aim is to define the place of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in emergency medicine. For this purpose we consider separately traumatic and non-traumatic diseases and also divide emergency conditions into those either absolute or deferred. Our considerations include a review of recent updated literature and the experience acquired at two different MRI centers (CHR in Namur, and CHU Brugmann in Brussels). One reason to justify the increasing use of emergency MRI is its ability to yield much more precise diagnostic information than CT scans in nearly all cases of acute neurological injury, (except for subarachnoid haemorrhage). Moreover, MRI is the only diagnostic tool that allows direct imaging of the spinal cord and is the best method to investigate disorders of the latter structure. Although indications for emergency MRI are numerous, investigation of the brain in emergency conditions is still dependent on CT scans, as MRI is not easily accessible. For potentially lethal disorders of other organs (heart, aorta...) MRI is still being evaluated and advances in new techniques such as helical CT are continuous. Given that access to MRI is still not easy, bone disorders (excluding axial skeleton) are considered to be deferred emergencies and standard investigation techniques and currently applicable. |
