Upon arrival, our staff welcomes you to check-in for your exam on the third floor.
A technologist will welcome you in the magnetic resonance suite. A venous access will be set up since it will be necessary during the exam. You will then be comfortably installed on the MRI examination table and you will be given noise-cancelling headphones to attenuate the noise generated by the machine, allow you to listen to pleasant music and communicate with the technologist who will perform the examination. You will be given an alarm button so that you can communicate with the technologist at any time if necessary.
In the absence of a contraindication, following a questionnaire conducted by the technologist, short-acting medication will be administered by venous route to slow bowel movements in order to maximize the quality of the examination.
The multiparametric prostate MRI consists of several sets of images that complement each other. Most of the time, 5 sets of images are obtained and their duration varies between 30 seconds and 9 minutes. Sometimes, a series of images can be repeated to ensure the quality of the data obtained. Before acquiring the last series of images, if there are no contraindications, a contrast agent will be injected through a vein to study the enhancement of prostate tissue. Approximately 45 minutes will elapse between the time you enter the examination room and the time you leave. The images obtained comply with the PI-RADS v2.1 standards of the American College of Radiology (https://www.acr.org/Clinical-Resources/Reporting-and-Data-Systems/PI-RADS).
The radiologist responsible for your examination will promptly interpret the examination and a detailed report will be sent to your attending physician in the short term. Interpretation is done according to PI-RADS v2.1 standards and most of the time, the conclusion of the report will contain one of the following information :
- No suspicious lesions of clinically significant cancer on MRI.
- PI-RADS Score 3/5: The presence of clinically significant cancer is equivocal.
- PI-RADS Score 4/5: Clinically significant cancer is likely to be present.
- PI-RADS Score 5/5: Clinically significant cancer is highly likely to be present.
MRI therefore does not assess the presence or absence of prostate cancer (many prostate cancers grow quite slowly / are indolent) but assesses the prostate for more aggressive cancer (clinically significant).
Your doctor will be able to direct you to the right resource as needed based on the magnetic resonance results.
