During the exam, you will be lying on a pallet that starts to move slowly into the opening of the machine, that is, toward the magnet. You will then be completely or partially—for instance, for a  knee joint scan—inside the machine.

Magnetic fields switching on and off produce a relatively loud knocking noise that many patients find disturbing. For this reason, you will be given earplugs or closed ear protection; you are often able to listen to (your own) music during the exam as well. The exam takes from a few minutes to half an hour, depending on the region of the body being examined and the specific case. In some cases, a sedative—not a sleeping aid—can be administered. This means that MRI exams can be performed for all patients without a problem. Please consider that an accompanying person may be needed in such cases, as you will not be able to drive a car immediately after the exam.

During the MRT exam it may be necessary to inject a special contrast agent. The injection is done in a body vein. Access is put in place prior to the exam. The administration of the contrast agent is typically not dangerous. We use only high-quality, annular contrast agents where side effects have been reported only in a few individual cases. Because the contrast agent is eliminated substantially through the kidneys, we need at least your creatinine levels if you have any kidney diseases. We would like to emphasize that the annular MRI contrast agents that we use have never been reported to have any clinical side effects to date due to buildup in the brain or the like, despite having been used millions of times. Buildup of gadolinium in the brain has been described in the literature, but this significance of this is not yet clear. For patients with limited kidney function, skin problems have been described, particularly NSF (nephrogenic systemic fibrosis). These problems have not been described for patients with normal kidney function. The contrast agents that we use are the latest generation of contrast agents—side effects due to contrast agents are very rare.