Medical imaging allows your orthopedic surgeon to examine the internal structures of your body. The team at Elite Sports Medicine + Orthopedics uses various imaging tests, such as:
Orthopedic X-ray
X-rays are a type of energy, similar to the light you see but with a higher energy frequency. The different tissues in your body stop the X-rays at different levels depending on the density of the tissue. Bone stops more X-ray than muscle, causing dense materials like a bone to show up as white while fat and muscles appear much darker.
Typically, four images per body part is sufficient to see what is needed. Images acquired for orthopedics are typically different than what a hospital would acquire.
Orthopedic MRI
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) creates more detailed images of the specific body part in question than an X-ray. During an orthopedic MRI procedure, a magnetic field temporarily realigns the water molecules present throughout your body. Then, radio waves cause these aligned molecules to release signals that a computer uses to produce an image.
