MRI Arthrogram

[csutherland]

Jerry has had a painful wrist since late Oct when the gardening season was winding up. Here it is gardening season again and he's still having problems.
He knew when he hurt the wrist and thought it was just sprained. Finally, on Dec 26 he went to his PCP who ultimately had it X-rayed twice, finding nothing. Jerry then made his own way to an orthopedic man who looked at the same X-rays and saw a tiny fracture. He put an injection of something in it, hoping it would be better in 2 wks.

That was a month ago and it's worse all the time. Now the orthopedic dr. wants to do a MRI Arthrogram and wants him to go off warfarin for 72 hrs. When we balked he said he'd have to get a release from his cardio. Long story short, the cardio says 72 hrs is OK! I then called the coumadin clinic. Of course they can't go against the cardio, but she did say that the reason for the holding of coumadin is that it might bleed into the joint.

Any experience with this type of MRI, anyone?

 

[Blanche]

If this happened to my Albert, he'd be looking for a new orthopedic dr and a new cardiologist. Holding three doses without bridging with heperin or Lovenox is asking for disaster. If my husband held for 3 days (72) hours, his INR would be well below 2.0 and he would be in danger of another stroke. He's already had two strokes beccause his INR dropped below 2.0.

I am sorry that I do not know about the procedure that your husband is having. Many people here have had MRIs
of every discription and I can't think of a single person having to go off anticoagulation, including Albert 6 times and me once.

http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=arthrog

Blanche

 

[bvdr]

I have had two Arthrogram MRIs on my left shoulder. Neither time did I hold coumadin nor was I asked to do so. I had some soreness but I don't know if I was any worse than anyone else gets. These were also done just days apart. Something was seen on the first one of which they wanted to get some additional pictures. I doubt that a wrist would be any more risk than a shoulder and I would think it would be in fact less.

I hope whatever it is your husband soon gets some relief!

I did not pre-medicate beforehand either. I've also had injections into the shoulder joint 2 or 3 times as well without antibiotics or lowering my INR.

 

[Guest]

It seems that you could live with an awful lot of pain in your hand as a trade-off for being paralyzed if the low INR leads to a stroke.