Debunking Myths About MRIs and X-Rays: Radiologic Technologist Sets the Record Straight

Welcome back to "A Couple of Rad Techs Podcast"! I'm your host, Chaundria Singleton, a registered radiologic technologist, and today we’re diving into the world of radiology to bust the 10 most common myths about MRIs and X-rays. Do MRI machines use harmful radiation? Do radiologic technologists just press buttons? Can pregnant women really have imaging tests? These are just some of the misconceptions we'll be addressing today. Join us as we unravel the truths behind these myths, uncover the various specialties within medical imaging, and delve into why a deep understanding of anatomy is crucial in our field. Whether you’re a curious listener or a potential future rad tech, this episode will shed light on the complexities and importance of radiologic technology. Subscribe, sit back, and get ready to learn and debunk with us!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:42 Myth 1
• 3:20 Myth 2
• 5:00 Myth 3
• 5:46 Myth 4
• 7:31 Myth 5
• 9:09 Myth 6
• 10:02 Myth 7
• 12:03 Myth 8
• 12:48 Myth 9
• 14:19 Myth 10
• 18:36 Closing

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to a couple of Rad Techs. I'm going live, and we're gonna talk about busting myths in radiology. We hear things all the time about, do you guys just press buttons? Do I get radiated with the MRI? Well, we're gonna turn over. Let me know if you are watching live, what questions you have. My name is Shondria, and I am a registered radiologic technologist. I'll even explain what that is because some people wonder, like, what's the difference between an x-ray technologist and a registered radiologic technologist? A lot of people can't even say it. So don't worry. We're gonna practice that today too. So let's get right into it. And number one myth is m r MRI machines use harmful radiation. Well, that is not true. In MRI, we actually use magnets. And the magnets use radio waves. That's it. No. Ionizing radiation. You're probably thinking of x rays, CAT scans. That uses radiation, which can be harmful if given in large doses over long periods of time. But in honesty, you actually get more radiation from the atmosphere. Our bodies give off ionizing radiation and so many other things around us. And, I don't have it because I'm talking on it. Cell phones is one of those things where we actually get radiation from. And, you know, we've got earbuds. We got Apple watches. We've got all type of things that produce radiation that is harmful to our body. So with MRI machines, you're not getting any harmful radiation. That is, like, one of the biggest things I get. I get patients all the time saying, wait a second. How much radiation am I getting with this MRI scan? And because I also do CAT scans or CT scans, I do administer radiation when I do CAT scans, but I'm able to help people to see that during MRI scans, you're not getting any ionizing radiation. So you're safe. Now we do have to take precautions with MRI scans even though we're not giving radiation. We have big magnets, which can be very harmful to people if the wrong thing is brought into the MRI scan room. If a patient is let in with the implant that is not MRI safe, we've gotta make sure we still stay safe even though it's not radiation. There are more things in radiology that we have to be careful of when it comes to safety than radiation. So be sure to let your technologist know if you have any implants in your body. If you weren't born with it, let them know, please. Because we need to know, because there are a few things that can harm you with MRI. If you have a if you have a pain patch, if you have a medication patch, a nicotine patches, any of those patches can actually burn your skin. So we have to make sure that we know that they are on you. So when people tell you that another thing is when people tell you that they've had an MRI scan with certain metals on their body, all metal is not created equal. Depends on the metal. It depends on a lot of physics of the scanner, where the ISO center or the center of the magnet is. There are certain points on the magnet that are actually more powerful than just maybe the area you're standing in. So all of those things are important. So not just radiation, myth number 2, radiologic technologists just press buttons. We get that all the time, and that is so far from the truth. We do press buttons. And in some professions in medical imaging, we don't press buttons. So it kinda depends on what profession in medical imaging you're doing. Did you know there are over 11 modalities in medical imaging? It's called medical imaging. I don't know if you know this. This is a fun fact because it encompasses so many professions, not just x-ray or MRI or CT. It actually has 11 professions, and I'm gonna just run through them really quick. Let me know if you knew these. You have X-ray, which is diagnostic X-ray. You have MRI. You have CT, nuclear medicine, radiation therapy, radiologist assistant, ultrasound or sonography, bone density, interventional radiologic technologist. I'm missing something else. Mammography technologist. And, my goodness. I I think I got everything. I feel like I'm missing 1, and I am. I'll come back with it at the end card. I'm missing one more y'all. I'm gonna come back with it, but we've got 11 professions in radiology. And in those professions or specialties, we have extra things that follow-up under those. So they're like subcategories to those specialties that you can do. And then you can go into sales, clinical applications, education, administration, research. You can even work on a veterinarian side of radiology. You don't always have to work with humans. That's really neat. I've never done that, and I've always wanted to. Myth number 3, MRI scans are dangerous. We kinda covered that in myth number 1. They are dangerous, but they're not dangerous. They're not dangerous on the radiation side, but they are generally safe and noninvasive. But no long term effects from it. Like ionizing radiation people, you know, you do harmful radiation given to patient's body. You do do some damage. But with MRIs, it's just radio waves. So really no long term damage. It might be a little ear noise irritation. So we make sure that you have ear plugs in your ears. If you would like music, you also can have music going on. So that is myth 3. I kinda covered that in myth 1. Number 4, radiology results are always immediate. No. Not always. So radiologists actually are the doctors that interpret the MRI scans. We as the radiologic technologists and subspecialties, we take the exams. We actually do the exams, But we have a doctor. Just like a nurse doesn't do everything in medical, you have surgical techs, you have respiratory therapy, you have radiology. You have doctors that specialize. Like, you just don't have a family doctor. You have a gastroenterologist. You have, ophthalmologist. You have a a, a OBGYN, and you have a radiologist. So you have a doctor that specifically reads and performs medical imaging procedures along with us, the technologist. And that's pretty much it. They are the ones that dictate and read the reports. Now we do have a specialty of radiologist assistants that have been trained to read certain images and certain scans along with the radiologist. They don't read all of them. They read some of them along with the radiologist. But for the most part, the radiologist reads all the exams now. Can you get immediate results? Yes, you can. Sometimes they are going to be stacked, and that is when you get a automatic reading from the radiologist. But again, the technologist never gives that. If it's a stat report, we ask that the patient wait around, and the doctor actually sends in a report and calls their doctor who ordered the scan. That doctor then calls their patient and talks to their patient about the results. That's pretty much it. Number 5, pregnant women cannot have imaging tests. I actually just did a video on this talking about, can you get an MRI scan if you're pregnant? That is a myth. You can. You it's it's a myth that you can't. A long time ago, we did not do routinely do scans on pregnant women. There was not enough data that suggested if it was harmful, if it wasn't harmful. So far, there's enough data. MRI scans were not done as much as they are done now. Like, they order them, like, oh, oh my goodness. I can't McDonald's now. But that wasn't always the case. They were very specific. They usually didn't have staff past 5 o'clock when I first started the MRI. So it wasn't staff past 5 o'clock, so there were no emergent scans. Nobody waiting around all night to do emergency MRIs. So you just did not have, a lot of women that needed to get an MRI because most of the time with MRI, which is different, you know what the issue is. So you know there's a hemangioma on the liver. You know that there is some kind of tear in the knee. So then you do the MRI to get better detail. That is what cat scans, people just complain abdominal pain. Now we do a cat scan to kinda search and see what abdominal pain is. We do x-ray to see why they're having shortness of breath. You don't do that for MRI. You know what usually know what you're going in for. Somebody say they got abdominal pain, they're not gonna send them to get an MRI. It's very specific to what is already known, and then we get better detail or clarity on what they already know. That's how they use MRI most like most of the time. So number 6, all scans are the same. MRI scans can be tailored to look at different parts of the body and specific conditions. That kinda goes into number 5 as well. So MRIs, when it comes to MRIs, we look at the bone. We can know out. We can, like, know or remove fat. We can know or remove bone, tissues, different things that we can get. We can only see fluid. We can see tissue. We can kinda do different things with the magnets and manipulate the magnets along with the hydrogen molecules of the body to be able to get to see certain tissues. We can use certain parameters and protocols that we plug into the machine and use that along with the hydrogen molecules in the body. Even being able to know that whatever we want to kinda get a different kind of, or use a different gradient, different piece of the magnet to be able to get different types of imaging, to be able to see more clearly. That is the beautiful thing about MRI. Number 7, myth. Radiologic technologists don't need to understand anatomy. I actually saw that on one of my TikToks. Someone said, oh, you don't need to know anatomy. Yeah. You do. Yes. You do. If you do not know anatomy, you're not gonna know what you're taking a picture of. We don't just say take a picture of the hand. When I I I just recently did a MRI, and it was of a tendon, a specific tendon. Now I don't know all the tendons by heart. But you know what? I knew that I wasn't looking at just the bones or fracture. I knew this was a tendon. So you have to kinda look up where this tendon is, or the doctor may say it's in the 3rd MCP. If you don't know what MCP is or the PCP or the ICP or the ACP or the PIP, if you don't know what those things are, which means you don't know your anatomy, you're gonna be either too superior or too inferior and totally miss the whole thing. You must know your anatomy, period, if you work in health care. But especially when we're looking in medical imaging, we are looking specifically at anatomical parts, pathology. We have the neuropathology, our anatomy, in order to be able to take images of people. It's It's just necessary. There's no way around it. So when I heard that, I was like, oh, totally wrong. You're misleading people. So if you want to get into radiology, side of it. Very strong at anatomy. The technical side of it, I was fine at the book side. Took out to the radiation biology and then physics. Took every brain cell in my head to study and understand that. And now I'm I'm back in school too. Once I finished, then I'll tell y'all. But I'm back in school, and it's taking every brain cell as well. I tell you, I took a little break during the pandemic and gotta move these cobwebs cobwebs up out of my brain. Do you guys feel like that sometimes? I know I do. You just gotta keep the brain going. Myth number 8. MRI scans can see everything in the body. It does have limitations. It cannot detect all deformities. It is limited. So we don't use MRI for everything. That's why we have so many different modalities and specialties. Ultrasound is great for certain things. I mean, ultrasound can really get in there and see things we can, and we need a little more detail. Now you can go over to one of the other specialties. And if you know what you're looking at to be able to treat certain diseases and cancers and things, this is where nuclear medicine comes in. This is where radiation therapy comes in. PET, all of them. And then they also work in conjunction together because you have MRI working with PET now. You have nuclear medicine and PET and CT all working together. It's just beautiful. Oh my goodness. Number 9, children can't have MRIs. Total myth. Total myth. Let me tell you. One of my favorite jobs was working in a pediatric hospital. Oh my goodness. I had so much fun working there. I learned so much, especially about anatomy because pediatric and children's anatomy is so different from anatomy just of adults. They have growth plates because their bones are not finished growing. So it sometimes it looks like their bodies aren't even attached, especially at the joints because those joints is where they grow. They have growth plates there, so they're growing. So it's like, oh my goodness. Like, those looks like little floating bones all there in their wrist. Like, nothing's even attached, or their heads. You know? It's just so interesting to see the little, you know, sutures and stuff in the head where the brain the skull has not, I can't think of the word. I'm transfused yet. So just, MRI children can anybody can get MRI. We MRI anything. They MRI fruits y'all. Anything with hydrogen in it can be MRI. Just know that. Hydrogen molecules is water and magnets work together. X rays, anybody, anything can get a x-ray. Yeah. So lastly, our 10th myth. You guys have stuck with me this far. Thank you so much. Be sure to subscribe. Give me a like, give me a subscribe. I appreciate it. And don't forget to check out these things here. Any different videos. I have a podcast as well. I love for you to check that out. So number 10. Radiology is only used for diagnosing broken bones. Oh, this drives me crazy. No. It is not. Broken bones is, yes, one of the things we use medical imaging for, specifically X-ray, but we use all the modalities to look at the broken bones and more. I just talked about PET scan, nuclear medicine scan. Let me tell you about bone density. Bone density is used to help women who are in a menopausal stage or perimenopausal stage to measure their bones over time. And hopefully, be able to catch before they start shrinking, because women start to shrink as they go into menopause as far as height, which equals them having a greater chance of having fractures in their spine and in their body, all of their bones. If they don't measure, if you start to see women shrink through getting these bone density scans, and they usually get them when they get their mammograms, when they get their female test, they'll get a bone density test at a certain age. And that is when the doctor starts to watch and say, well, whoo. Wait. You were 510 last year, and now you're 57. That's the problem. We need to start getting some treatment, getting things going. This is how important medical imaging is to everyone. And then we also do MRIs on prostates. So if you are a man and you go get your blood work done and it shows inflammation in the prostate or your PSA levels are off, that blood work tells the doctor something needs to be done. What we usually do to really get a good look is we have modalities we can use. A doctor would determine which medical imaging modality would be best suited. A lot of times, it's MRI. I can't tell you. 1 year I worked at a hospital, not 1 year, several years. And I did, like, prostates all day long. Prostate, MRIs all day long. And they're not hard. They're not. Not but they're uncomfortable for men, many times. But they are really detailed and really good. And they're just not for prostate cancer. They are anytime you have inflammation in the prostate, sometimes people with men can just have inflamed prostates. That's not good either. Why? Anytime something inflames, there's a problem. So our MRI gets in there and gets to see detail, and then the doctor can be able to treat the patient or put them on a watch and be able to reduce that by different methods. And they can also get in there and see, is this cancerous? Many times we have patients that come in, they're complaining of, like, a a a growing pain and or they like a hernia. And a lot of times you think the doctor thinks that it's a hernia in a male down in a groin area. Turns out, when we take that scan excuse me. Take that scan because they were complaining to the groin area, we're thinking hernia. We actually see testicular cancer. And then they've we found that, and they've been able to go get treatment. Now if they've had testicular pain or things like that, but sometimes they're having pain inside the groin, and it's not on the testicles. Many times, people feel a lump. So what do they do? They go get a a mammogram. They go get a ultrasound. They're able to get exams that can image the body outside of broken bones. I worked in a cancer center for many years, and I was able to work with patients who came back every 6 months after they got through their treatment of cancer and they have succeeded, but they still had to come back for the 1st 5 years, every 6 months, every year for some, and get a routine CT scan. Some people, chest, abdomen, pelvis, it just depended on what their doctor wanted to look at for them and what type of cancer they had to keep a watch on it. And some might just get a abdomen. Some might just get a abdomen, pelvis. Some just may get a chest because cancer sometimes metastasizes back to those areas. So we do medical imaging on all body parts for many different reasons, not just broken bones. And that is why I created this page of a couple of rad techs. So be sure Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for joining me for this debunking 10 myths about radiologic technology. Come back for more. Be sure to binge watch any of my videos and subscribe, follow, and I love for you to give me any suggestions on what you'd like to learn about medical imaging and radiology. Until next time.