I had my head examined...

by abstractbill • 17 years ago

165 47 17 years ago

icey3• 17 years ago

That's pretty cool. Did you go to a private company to get your MRI done or was this something that was covered under your insurance and they just happened to let you keep the data?

tocomment• 17 years ago

I'm curious too how you got the data? Did you give you slices like that, and you scanned them?

wesley2• 17 years ago

Different guy here, also had an mri done. I simply got a cd-rom with the image slices and a software to view them. There's about 600 images if I can recall correctly.

pmichaud• 17 years ago

When you get a scan like this, they give you all the slices. When I had it done I got them physically, they might just do them digitally now.

I even got a 3D model of my skull, it was pretty awesome.

chasingsparks• 17 years ago

I get checkup MR scans every 6 months. I ask for copies for my images on CD. I have never had a place reject but some charge you an out of pocket 10-20$

abstractbill3• 17 years ago

It was covered under my insurance (which means I'll pay an apparently random out-of-pocket amount between 0% and 99% at some later date, judging on previous uses of this insurance).

They didn't offer me the data, but I asked, and they gave me a DVD full of scan data. Had to do a little research to figure out how to convert that data to jpeg images, but it wasn't too hard - it turns out imagemagick understands the formats involved, and can do all of the required processing steps.

wesley2• 17 years ago

Would you mind sharing the scripts? Would love to have something similar. :-)

teej2• 17 years ago

I'm sure the intricacies vary by state and country, but you typically have a legal right to access your medical records, regardless of who pays and who performs the care. In the US, these rights are granted by HIPAA.

ErrantX2• 17 years ago

Thanks for sharing that - the human body is crazily fascinating and the brain has to be one of the most intriguing parts of it.

Seeing "inside" one's head is a little awe inspiring.

JeremyChase• 17 years ago

Yes, thank you for sharing. I had a lot of fun poking around your head. I hope that whatever was ailing you has subsided.

abstractbill3• 17 years ago

This is my favorite image btw - my eyeballs look awesome!

http://abstractnonsense.com/mri-images/top-to-bottom/0117.jp...

ErrantX2• 17 years ago

A whole new meaning to the phrase "you have beautiful eyes"

euccastro• 17 years ago

Actually, I have once been complimented in a bar with the phrase "you have such big eyeballs!" It was mildly flattering since I could tell she meant it as a compliment, but I felt really weird.

sylar• 17 years ago

GREAT!!! now I can see how you dod that thing. Unfortunately I can't carry a RMI machine every time I need, so I'll keep killing people.

yummyfajitas2• 17 years ago

I was about to downmod you, but then I noticed your username.

bootload• 17 years ago

"... This is my favorite image btw - my eyeballs look awesome! ..."

The immediate thing that struck me is the lack of internal structure symmetry. The folding is different between the left and the right hemisphere.

MicahWedemeyer• 17 years ago

Get a print and put it in your wallet. Show it to people like it's your kids or something.

axod• 17 years ago

Awesome :)

Really interesting to see it in an easy to use UI like that.

All we need now is a zoom -> enhance, zoom -> enhance. Down to the neuron level.

anigbrowl• 17 years ago

Nice work! Fascinating to observe the differences between your left and right hemispheres. Are the barrel distortions constant or a function of the scanner's travel? eg move the Z/blue line all the way to the front or back of the head, and the sides pincushion inwards. I couldn't make out if it was constant or not, but the shape of the Y/Red frame seemed to change as it moves from top to bottom.

yan• 17 years ago

Is it possible to participate in some students project and get your head scanned for free as part of a study? That would be sweet.

n8agrin2• 17 years ago

If you haven't ever read about how MRIs work, you should. I first learned how MRIs work in college while studying biochemistry. The same technology is used in that field, but called NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance). It is the only medical technology that still blows me away when I sit down and think about it. The people who realized they could use it to take cross-sectional scans of peoples bodies without any invasive procedure are true geniuses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_resonance_imaging

arohner• 17 years ago

"Just lay down on that table, and hold still while we orient the polarization of all the water in your head. It'll be just fine."

CTs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_computed_tomography) and PETs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron_Emission_Tomography) are pretty cool as well. CTs use essentially an X-ray beam that travels in a helical path around your body, and then use math to construct a 3D image, PET is the one where you drink an isotope, and they "catch" the positrons emitted from the radioactive material in your body.

messel• 17 years ago

Heh, I did an NMR experiment in senior lab back in school (1995 senior lab) and had forgotten that this is precisely how MRI works (the resonance should have given it away). I wish I had my old lab book (only had a paper copy) to review the experiment now, it's fogging out big time from my memory.

n8agrin2• 17 years ago

Not sure if it's true, but my prof in college told us that the reason the name was changed was because of the negative connotation of the word "nuclear". Otherwise it's exactly the same technology as NMR.

robg• 17 years ago

A great intuitive way to link head mri's to actual heads. Thanks for this. I expect it will be really helpful for students.

If anyone wants to get paid (usually about $30/hour) to have your head examined, search for a fMRI lab at the biggest universities in your area. You'll usually also get an image or two. If you ask nicely you may also be able to get the same type of set as here.

datums• 17 years ago

Nice work. How long till every one of our doctors has easy access to something like this ?

niels_olson• 17 years ago

Docs pretty much all have easy access to MRI, at least in the US. I have prescribed MRIs for patients in rural Louisiana. We just tell the patient "go get an MRI". Either the hospital radiology group has a scanner, or there are radiologists with MRI machines out in town. The patient just has to sign a HIPAA release so I can get the images and the radiologist's report.

Fun fact: one of the failed attempts at regulating doctors was to for the government to buy machines for hospitals, thinking somehow the government would maybe somehow have some control over something, maybe who got scanned? Net effect was an explosion in high-end OR and radiology equipment.

RK• 17 years ago

There are a number of programs out there to look at images from MRI's, CT, etc, but if you are interested in hacking something together, the pydicom library is worth checking out.

http://code.google.com/p/pydicom/

DEinspanjer• 17 years ago

Were you thinking about sexy women during the scan? If you focus the green axis of the scan just one click to the right from the center of your nose, your brain stem looks just like a dancer leaning against a wall.. Either that or a crucifix. Maybe you are catholic? :)

Anyway, very interesting pictures. Thanks for sharing.

itodd• 17 years ago

Be sure to play with your study in OsiriX: http://www.osirix-viewer.com/

It will build a 3d Model where you can peel back all the way to the bone.

andreas_s• 17 years ago

If you're in Boston (or somewhere close) and want to get your brain scanned as part of a study, look for announcements here:

http://mollylab-1.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/bcs-subjects

You'll get a CD with your images, and you'll get paid ($30 per hour, two hours on average).

I had my head examined...

Related Stories