MRI w/ gadolinium for annular tears

[Aaron]

Does anyone have experience with this? I came across a site that discussed how using this contrast can help diagnose annular tears with an MRI that may be previously missed. Is the contrast injected into the disc like it is during a discogram then CT or is it just injected into the body.
I had tears at all three levels of the thoracic that were tested during discogram, 2 positive, 1 not for pain. But thats got me wondering how many more tears I have in that area, but I don't want to keep punching my discs with needles to find out. So I am trying to research some higher powered MRI machines.

PS. Just read about a 9.4T strength ( not in practical use yet) that a study was done on, my most recent MRI was done on a 1.5T strength. I wonder in the area of annular tears if the higher the strength machine the better.

[mmglobal]

After you have had surgery, all your MRI's will most-likely be ordered with 'contrast' or gadolinium. The gadolinium is injected intravenously after the first scans are done. So you'll get 2 sets of scans, with and without contrast.

Gadolinium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mark