What is the radiation exposure from ultrasound and MRI?
Ultrasound imaging is sometimes used for interventional radiology procedures. Ultrasound uses high frequency sound waves to view soft tissues, such as muscles and internal organs. At current intensities, no risk is known to exist for this type of imaging procedure. MRI uses strong magnetic fields and radio waves to obtain images, which are not associated with exposure to ionizing radiation. The images are obtained with the patient lying down on a table and being placed inside a long tube. The tube can look much like a CT scanner, but MRI’s usually take between 30 minutes to an hour, while CT scans only take a few seconds.
