Making MRI less frightening

The process of having a medical scan in hospital can be daunting and frightening for any adult. So imagine what it’s like for a child. 

MRI scanning is a critical tool for diagnosing and monitoring diseases in childhood, particularly brain tumours, however the experience of undergoing a scan can be distressing for children. A child has to lie within the narrow bore of the very noisy scanner for an hour or possibly more. Those who have a brain scan also have a special cage or coil around their heads. 

Set in the overall clinical environment of the MRI suite and a child can easily be intimidated. What makes it worse is that any movement by a child who is not relaxed reduces the quality of the image, in severe cases making it unprintable. Sometimes the scan has to be abandoned. 

Current MRI research into childhood disease is limited by this problem. 

The traditional way around this in clinical practice is to give a child a general anaesthetic (GA) for their MRI scan. Each year around 300 MRI scans are performed in children aged 5 to 8-years-old at Nottingham Children’s Hospital – 65% under GA.   

Although it works, it’s not without risk and additional healthcare costs and the use of GA raises important ethical considerations when MRI scans are being done for medical research purposes as opposed to contributing directly to the medical care of the child.   

Transforming the experience for young people 

Now, thanks to the support of the Haydn Green Foundation, we have bought a MRI-compatible audio visual system that allows children to watch a favourite film, cartoon or programme while having their MRI scan.  This helps the radiographer transform the experience, helping us to successfully complete scans in very young children while awake.  

As part of our child-friendly approach to MRI scanning we have also made an animation of the MRI procedure aimed at 5-11 years olds https://youtu.be/IMpfW8KtoE8.   

Dr Rob Dineen, Associate Professor of Neuroimaging, has been leading this project:  

“The MRI compatible audio visual system has been fantastic for children undergoing research MRI scans.  We ask them to bring a favourite DVD to watch, helping them relax during their scan. As well as the comfort of seeing a familiar story, it also distracts them from the rather intimidating and noisy machine that they are lying in. 

“We have found that older children and adolescents prefer to watch videos of their favourite bands which we stream to them straight from YouTube. A pop song lasts about the same length of time as some of our MRI sequences, and so we can take requests for songs from them in the gaps between running the sequences!  The funding from the Haydn Green Foundation to buy this system has transformed the experience that these children have when they come for their scan.”