Abstract
IntroductionMRI is considered a safe and well tolerated imaging technique with risks largely limited to heating and/or displacement of implanted ferromagnetic metal in the patient’s body, worsening anxiety, triggering claustrophobia, and gadolinium induced nephrogenic systemic fibrosis.Case presentationWe present a case of a 26 year old Asian American man with no significant past medical or psychiatric history and two months of left T4 radicular pain. During 3T-MRI of the whole spine, the patient experienced acute agitation, fear, anxiety, tachypnea, tachycardia with palpitations, and dizziness. He felt intense surface heat over segments of his body and very loud noises. He perceived impending serious bodily harm by the scanner. The scan was aborted at the lumbar spine, and cervical and thoracic spine was unremarkable. The patient’s pain resolved in the weeks following with over the counter analgesics, however, he developed increased arousal, re-experiencing the event, persistent avoidance, and significant psychosocial impairment consistent with DSM-IV-TR criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).ConclusionThis is the first reported case of MRI induced PTSD. Theoretically, the high-magnetic field of the 3T scanner may have contributed to the development of symptoms.
Highlights
MRI is considered a safe and well tolerated imaging technique with risks largely limited to heating and/or displacement of implanted ferromagnetic metal in the patient’s body, worsening anxiety, triggering claustrophobia, and gadolinium induced nephrogenic systemic fibrosis.Case presentation: We present a case of a 26 year old Asian American man with no significant past medical or psychiatric history and two months of left T4 radicular pain
MRI is generally considered a safe and well tolerated imaging technique that has advanced the field of medicine by leaps and bounds
We describe a case of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following a “traumatic” 3T-MRI scan in a large tertiary medical center
Summary
MRI is generally considered a safe and well tolerated imaging technique that has advanced the field of medicine by leaps and bounds. During the lumbar portion of the scan, the patient became acutely agitated, felt extremely hot, tachypneic, tachycardic with palpitations, intense anxiety and feeling of impending doom, and acute vertigo He heard very loud noises and areas of intense heat over his external body. Over the three months, the patient developed increased arousal (difficulty sleeping and hypervigilance) and flashbacks of the MRI encounter with recurrence of symptoms (fear, tachypneic, tachycardia with palpitations, dizziness, and anxiety). He would feel as if the traumatic event was recurring. The patient refused pharmacological therapy and no further workup for his transient radicular pain was initiated
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