Can an MRI examine ligaments?

Everyone must be familiar with the MRI examination method. This is a physical examination method. In current clinical medicine, it is a widely used examination method with many uses. MRI can be used to examine tumor diseases, especially tumors in the brain. MRI examination is essential. So, can MRI be used to examine human ligaments?

Can an MRI examine ligaments?

Magnetic resonance imaging is a new medical imaging technology that uses the principle of nuclear magnetic resonance and has extraordinary diagnostic capabilities for the human body. Compared with other examination methods, MRI examination has unique advantages such as more detected parameters, faster scanning speed, higher resolution and clearer images, which can help doctors diagnose some early diseases that are difficult to detect.

MRI examinations are mostly used for head examinations. The working principle of head MRI is actually not difficult to understand. It is to place the human body in a special magnetic field and use radio frequency pulses to excite the hydrogen nuclei in the human body, causing the hydrogen nuclei to resonate and absorb energy. After the radio frequency pulse is stopped, the hydrogen nuclei emit radio signals at a specific frequency, and then release the absorbed energy, which is collected by receivers outside the body. After post-processing by a computer, an image is obtained. This is called magnetic resonance imaging.

Although MRI is most often used to examine the brain, it can also be used to examine ligaments. Because ligament sprain is a soft tissue contusion, it is within the range of MRI detection.

Ligaments are tissues that connect two bones. Muscle swelling and congestion will occur around the part where the ligament is strained. This is because external force causes the joint to move beyond the normal range, causing the ligaments around the joint to be strained, partially ruptured, or completely ruptured. This is a joint ligament sprain. When injured, the soft tissues in the ankle joint are squeezed and impacted, causing cartilage surface damage and synovial swelling, which leads to swelling and congestion around the ankle joint. If correct treatment is not carried out in time, the support strength of the lateral ankle joint will decrease and the joint proprioception will decrease. In this way, the instability of the ankle joint will worsen, so the treatment should focus on relaxing muscles and activating blood circulation, regulating and dredging microcirculation. As long as the microcirculation is unblocked, swelling, pain, accumulation, etc. will disappear, and the body will recover accordingly.