How do doctors find a bleed on a CT without contrast when you get reflections from the coils? My son’s coils are 29mm x 23mm x 36mm. It’s the size of a golf ball ! All he gets on his scans are huge starbursts. You can’t even see all of his ventricles. MRI & MRA are out because of amount of metal and his shunt. Has anybody had this problem? And what tests, if any, did they have? Help.
Hi Erin,
Not sure I have an answer. My wife has a “metal” aneurysm clip, but it is titanium or something else that is NOT magnetic. We had scans and MRIs at the hospital where she was treated, and were told that it was ok to get scans-no restrictions.
Well, getting a followup scan locally (to be sent to our Stanford DRs) about a year later, she scheduled and did a scan. A few hours later, a very distraught local doctor or scan reader, not sure which, called her in a panic: How was she feeling, any issues with headaches or dizziness, any pain in her head, etc? Nope.
He said when he was reading the scans, he saw the aneurysm clip and was very concerned that the scan machine’s magnetic field might have dislodged the clip. When we told him it was titanium, he calmed down.
So I’d check to make sure exactly what kind of metal was used, and what type of scan he can and cannot have.
I’d also make sure he has a medical alert necklace, bracelet, and/ or a med alert card in his wallet right next to his ID, so if he ever is in an accident, the team knows NOT to give him certain kinds of scans.
Hope this helps.
Ron, KS