TheGymGuy
Well-known member
Had my first MRI of my heart since surgery at a little under 9 month. The MRI went uneventfully. I brought this print out (http://www.onxlti.com/heart-valves/medical-professionals/mri-memo/) with me and told them my valve type and name (Aortic Valve by On-X)
Turns out, they googled the same link and came out with the same print out. The Machine was Tesla 2.5T I think and it did not need any special settings for the valve. My MRI took about 90 minutes and they used Gadolinium MRI contrast (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRI_contrast_agent).
As usual with Heart MRI you take a bunch of deep breaths and hold for 7-10 seconds, etc.
Anyways, all went well, I wore my On-X ring to see if it warms up at all and it did not. My whole upper body was warmer after some time, but this was same as my 2 pervious MRI experiences prior to AVR (actually, these are known feeling if you are in the MRI tube). Valve kept on ticking quietly, though it was impossible to hear it due to loudness of MRI.
Just an update that you if you have a mechanical valve (no metal parts, mostly from carbon), which I think STJ, On-X, and ATS are made from, you will be safe in the MRI which can provide a great view of your internals should something needs to be looked.
BTW, Main reason I had this done is that I am starting to train for another competition in March and I might up intensity on my training quite a bit, so my surgeon and I wanted to make sure that all the parts are looking intact so far, that there are no other aneurysms showing and that heart muscle looks healthy. Everything checked out great, the ascending aorta looks nice and why wouldn't it, the whole things was replaced from root (root was reinforced with felt strip) and up to and including the hemi-arch, the heart function looked fine, the whole candy cane (whole aorta) looked very consistent size, so we are all good.
Train hard, play hard,
GymGuy
Turns out, they googled the same link and came out with the same print out. The Machine was Tesla 2.5T I think and it did not need any special settings for the valve. My MRI took about 90 minutes and they used Gadolinium MRI contrast (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRI_contrast_agent).
As usual with Heart MRI you take a bunch of deep breaths and hold for 7-10 seconds, etc.
Anyways, all went well, I wore my On-X ring to see if it warms up at all and it did not. My whole upper body was warmer after some time, but this was same as my 2 pervious MRI experiences prior to AVR (actually, these are known feeling if you are in the MRI tube). Valve kept on ticking quietly, though it was impossible to hear it due to loudness of MRI.
Just an update that you if you have a mechanical valve (no metal parts, mostly from carbon), which I think STJ, On-X, and ATS are made from, you will be safe in the MRI which can provide a great view of your internals should something needs to be looked.
BTW, Main reason I had this done is that I am starting to train for another competition in March and I might up intensity on my training quite a bit, so my surgeon and I wanted to make sure that all the parts are looking intact so far, that there are no other aneurysms showing and that heart muscle looks healthy. Everything checked out great, the ascending aorta looks nice and why wouldn't it, the whole things was replaced from root (root was reinforced with felt strip) and up to and including the hemi-arch, the heart function looked fine, the whole candy cane (whole aorta) looked very consistent size, so we are all good.
Train hard, play hard,
GymGuy
I suppose I could share in the TAWDRY T-Shirt forum. It is quite fun to compare how things looks under CATscan or MRI pre and post surgery.
