If you notice any pain, redness, and/or swelling at the IV site after you return home following your procedure, you should notify your health care provider, as this could indicate an infection or other type of reaction. Nursing mothers may choose not to breastfeed for 12 to 24 hours after a breast MRI with contrast.
After the Test
Generally speaking, there are no after-effects of a breast MRI procedure. You may have pain, redness, or bruising at the IV injection site. On rare occasions, you may experience an allergic reaction to the gadolinium solution. Most cases are mild.
If contrast dye was used during your procedure, you may be watched for any side effects or reactions to the dye. These may include itching, swelling, rash, or trouble breathing. If you're nursing, don't breastfeed for 36 to 48 hours after a breast MRI with contrast dye.
While the MRI procedure itself causes no pain, having to lie still for the length of the procedure might cause some discomfort or pain, particularly in the case of a recent injury or invasive procedure such as surgery.
A few women had adverse reactions to the contrast dye injected during breast MRI. Others reported the procedure to be uncomfortable because of the position they had to hold or claustrophobia.
Breast MRI is not limited by breast density, and research has shown that it is more sensitive than mammography at finding breast cancer.
Breast MRI has more false positive results than mammography. A false positive result shows a possible breast cancer, even though breast cancer isn't present. The suspicious area must be checked with follow-up tests, and sometimes a biopsy, to be sure there's no breast cancer.
Some MRI scans involve having an injection of contrast agent (dye). This makes certain tissues and blood vessels show up more clearly and in greater detail. Sometimes the contrast agent can cause side effects, such as: feeling or being sick.
They may also cause peripheral muscle or nerve stimulation that may feel like a twitching sensation. The radiofrequency energy used during the MRI scan could lead to heating of the body. The potential for heating is greater during long MRI examinations.
There aren't any side-effects from the MRI scan itself. However, if you've had an injection of contrast medium (dye) as part of the investigation, you may have some side-effects which might include a skin rash, dizziness, a headache, and nausea.
Breast MRI is not without disadvantages. The heightened sensitivity or MRI when compared to mammography (99% vs. 67.8%) is balanced by the wide range in specificity (37-97%).
High risk women should have both an annual mammogram and an annual MRI. These can be done on the same date or six months apart, at the patient's or provider's discretion. It is also important to time the MRI to occur between days seven and 14 of the menstrual cycle to best visualize the breast tissue.
Imaging characteristics that are indicative of axillary lymph node metastatic involvement can be seen with mammography (MG), computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
The most common adverse reactions are minimal: headache, nausea (feeling slightly sick) and dizziness for a brief time after the injection.
Radiation can also cause your breast, shoulder, or arm to feel sore or stiff and inflexible. For stiff shoulders, talk to your radiation treatment team about exercises you can do to stay flexible. Symptoms of sore or swollen breasts usually go away several weeks after radiation therapy ends.
Common side effects of contrast materials are generally mild and may include a rash, nausea, and vomiting. More severe reactions can include anaphylactic shock or nephrogenic systemic fibrosis.
You won't have pain from the magnetic field or radio waves used for the MRI test. But you may be tired or sore from lying in one position for a long time. If a contrast material is used, you may feel some coolness when it is put into your IV.
Most adverse events are type A, generally mild reactions, including coldness, warmth, or pain at the injection site; nausea, vomiting; headache; paresthesias; dizziness; myalgia and arthralgia; and thrombophlebitis.
Gadolinium can also cause an allergic reaction. The current claims are different. The side effects patients are reporting now include joint pain, muscle fatigue and cognitive impairment that can last for years. The gadolinium used in the dye is anchored to a molecule to create a nontoxic compound.
You can be as active as you like after the MRI unless you were given a sedative. Check with your doctor about this. The pictures taken during the test will be reviewed by a radiologist.
The kidneys remove most MRI contrast agents from your blood. People with normal kidney function pass the contrast out into the urine between two to 24 hours after it is injected. If you have an MRI scan of your liver, a different MRI contrast is often given.
MRI is a very safe procedure. As noted above, MRI does not use x-rays. In theory, you could undergo many MRI examinations without any cumulative effects.
Although it has distinct advantages over mammography, breast MRI also has potential limitations. For example, it is not always able to distinguish the difference between cancerous abnormalities, which may lead to unnecessary breast biopsies. This is often referred to as a "false positive" test result.
MRI is not recommended as a screening test by itself, because it can miss some cancers that a mammogram would find. Although MRI can find some cancers not seen on a mammogram, it's also more likely to find things that turn out not to be cancer (called a false positive).
On a breast MRI, the contrast tends to become more concentrated in areas of cancer growth, showing up as white areas on an otherwise dark background. This helps the radiologist determine which areas could possibly be cancerous.