Major red flags raised about Trump's health after MRI note made public

A medical expert claims an MRI procedure undergone by Donald Trump has sparked more questions than answers as he claims the type of scan reported to have been carried out on the president "does not exist". In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Mr Trump, aged 79, said he regretted undergoing the advanced imaging on his heart and abdomen during an October visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center because it raised public questions about his health.

His physician said in a memo the White House released in December that he had “advanced imaging” as a preventative screening for men his age. The president's doctor, Navy Captain Sean Barbabella, said in a statement released Thursday by the White House that Trump underwent the exam in October because he planned to be at Walter Reed to meet people working there. Cpt Barbabella said he asked the president to undergo either a CT scan or an MRI to “definitively rule out any cardiovascular issues” and the results of an abdominal MRI were "perfectly normal and revealed absolutely no abnormalities". Mr Trump had initially described it as an MRI but said he didn't know what part of his body he had scanned. A CT scan is a quicker form of diagnostic imaging than an MRI but offers less detail about differences in tissue.

According to medical analyst Doctor Sanjay Gupta, who consulted with what he described as “the most credentialed radiologists in the country," the procedure outlined in Trump’s note is virtually unheard of. Speaking on the Midas Health program, Dr. Gupta said he contacted top radiology experts across the US to verify whether a “torso MRI” is ever used as a routine screening tool for ageing patients, the Mirror reports.

He explained: “No one is aware of getting an MRI of the torso… It doesn’t exist. There is no clinical guideline that says, as you age, get an MRI of the heart and abdomen.”

Dr. Gupta added: "MRIs are not used as primary screening tools. But the fact that they just chose to focus on the heart and the abdominal findings honestly makes no sense. And this has been vetted across the spectrum with external experts as well.

"So again, they're creating more problems for themselves, if you ask me, and creating more questions to be answered than they're actually solving. Now talk about his behavior. And one of the things that you and I have been very mindful of is to not speculate, but to simply report the observational, objective things that we're seeing."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on New Year's Day that the president’s doctors and the White House have “always maintained the President received advanced imaging” but said that “additional details on the imaging have been disclosed by the President himself” because he “has nothing to hide.”

“In retrospect, it’s too bad I took it because it gave them a little ammunition,” Trump said in the interview with The Wall Street Journal published on January 1.

He added: “I would have been a lot better off if they didn’t, because the fact that I took it said, ‘Oh gee, is something wrong?’ Well, nothing’s wrong.”

Trump became the oldest person to take the oath of office for president when he was sworn in last year and has been sensitive to questions about his health, particularly as he has repeatedly questioned his predecessor Joe Biden's fitness for office.

Biden, who turned 82 in the last year of his presidency, was dogged the end of the his tenure and during his abandoned attempt to seek reelection over scrutiny of his age and mental acuity.

But questions have also swirled around Trump's health this year as he's been seen with bruising on the back of his right hand that has been conspicuous despite a slathering of makeup on top, along with noticeable swelling at his ankles.

The White House said in the summer that the president had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition among older adults. The condition happens when veins in the legs can’t properly carry blood back to the heart and it pools in the lower legs.

In the interview, Trump said he briefly tried wearing compression socks to address the swelling but stopped because he didn't like them.

The bruising on Trump's hand, according to Leavitt, is from “frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin,” which Trump takes regularly to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.

He said he takes more aspirin than his doctors recommend but said he has resisted taking less because he’s been taking it for 25 years and said he is “a little superstitious.” Trump takes 325 milligrams of aspirin daily, according to Barbabella.

“They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart,” Trump said. “I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?”

Trump denied he has fallen asleep during White House meetings when cameras have caught him with his eyes closed, instead insisting he was resting his eyes or blinking.