3 ms·

most people never need one

PaulHoule 2y ago
Not sure. According to this there are 40M given a year in the US, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38021512/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38021512/ which is about 1 in 9 people. If those scans were evenly distributed everyone would get several in a lifetime although there is probably a Pareto thing going on to the effect that "20% of people get 80% of the scans". It's pretty routine for common soft tissue injuries. My son got a minor injury at work and had a Workman's Comp claim and got his knee scanned (puts a bound on liability I guess); I got my knee scanned because I'd had patello-femoral pain for a while and wanted to try steroid injections (didn't stick with it, my wife has given steroid injections to numerous horses, she tells me it helps in the short term but not the long term) Like my scan his scan came back with "degenerative changes consistent with your age". It may be a waste in most cases https://www.mymosh.com/spine/mri-for-back-pain-be-careful-what-you-ask-for/ https://www.mymosh.com/spine/mri-for-back-pain-be-careful-wh...
y-c-o-m-b 2y ago
I'm not sure that's true. I can't think of a single person I know over 35 that hasn't had one at some point. I'm an edge case for MRIs (I've had well over a dozen, maybe even two dozen), but I had to get one for a badly sprained ankle and that's a relatively common injury.
- micromacrofoot 2y ago
  it's me, the opposite anecdote, no one I know has had one
  - y-c-o-m-b 2y ago
    I'm not suggesting it's definitively wrong based on my anecdote, I am just speculating that it might not be true and that it's hard to avoid injuries in life requiring MRI. Do you actually have discussions around medical issues affecting you or the people you know? I do, quite often. What is their demographic? I said over 35, which is the demographic I associate with; these people typically have a slew of injuries and medical problems accumulated over the decades, making it more likely for them to having used an MRI machine.

Not sure. According to this there are 40M given a year in the US, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38021512/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38021512/ which is about 1 in 9 people. If those scans were evenly distributed everyone would get several in a lifetime although there is probably a Pareto thing going on to the effect that "20% of people get 80% of the scans". It's pretty routine for common soft tissue injuries. My son got a minor injury at work and had a Workman's Comp claim and got his knee scanned (puts a bound on liability I guess); I got my knee scanned because I'd had patello-femoral pain for a while and wanted to try steroid injections (didn't stick with it, my wife has given steroid injections to numerous horses, she tells me it helps in the short term but not the long term) Like my scan his scan came back with "degenerative changes consistent with your age". It may be a waste in most cases https://www.mymosh.com/spine/mri-for-back-pain-be-careful-what-you-ask-for/ https://www.mymosh.com/spine/mri-for-back-pain-be-careful-wh...

y-c-o-m-b 2y ago

I'm not sure that's true. I can't think of a single person I know over 35 that hasn't had one at some point. I'm an edge case for MRIs (I've had well over a dozen, maybe even two dozen), but I had to get one for a badly sprained ankle and that's a relatively common injury.

micromacrofoot 2y ago
it's me, the opposite anecdote, no one I know has had one
- y-c-o-m-b 2y ago
  I'm not suggesting it's definitively wrong based on my anecdote, I am just speculating that it might not be true and that it's hard to avoid injuries in life requiring MRI. Do you actually have discussions around medical issues affecting you or the people you know? I do, quite often. What is their demographic? I said over 35, which is the demographic I associate with; these people typically have a slew of injuries and medical problems accumulated over the decades, making it more likely for them to having used an MRI machine.