A quick recap on medical scanners used at my clinic. Medical scanners allow doctors to see inside patients' body. This painless procedure involves combining X-rays / magnetic fields and a computer to create images of a patient's organs, bones, and other tissue. It shows far more detail than a regular X-ray.
Both MRI and CT scans provide diagnostic images of the inside of a patients' body. They, however, accomplish this task in distinctly different ways.
MRI scan (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) allows doctors to see inside a patient's body in great anatomical detail. It involves combining X-rays / magnetic fields and a computer to create images of patients' organs, bones, blood vessels, nerves, etc. Thus, it shows far more detail than a regular X-ray. MRI is generally used to scan soft tissue.
CT or CAT scans (Computerised Tomography) combine several X-rays to produce detailed images of structures inside the body.
CT scans typically take diagnostic images more quickly compared to MRI. For example, a CT scan can usually be completed in less than 5 minutes, while MRI takes about 30 minutes.