MRI safe?

I know this topic has been addressed many times here but I wanted to share a recent experience. My wife had to go in for an MRI. She has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheel chair a majority of the time. She can walk with help but we knew she’d need help getting on the table. I let the technicians know that I wanted to help but I have a pacemaker. They would not allow me in the room with the machine, even with it turned off. I made the off comment that my PM wasn’t an MRI safe model. The technician said that as far as they were concerned, there was no such thing as an MRI safe pacemaker. We are in Austin Texas, the technician told me the nearest location that would accept an MRI safe pacemaker was in Houston, about 160 miles away. I know there must be other practices in Austin Texas with an MRI and I wonder if the technician was speaking for all practices within the city. I assumed she was since she made the comment about Houston being the closest location.

I just thought it was unusual because Austin is a rather large city with many hospitals.

6 Comments

Website for MRI safe devices

by Harrie - 2014-09-29 06:09:17

mrisafety.com lists all implantable devices ( use search function to limit to pm's/icd's) and whether safe/unsafe/conditional plus conditions, red flags, forms etc
Seems comprehensive.
And yes Tracey is right - the power of the machine is also a factor in whether they can do it or not. I've found a place in Sydney by ringing around, but they have only done 3.

depends where you ask

by Tracey_E - 2014-09-29 06:09:23

Not every facility can do an mri with an mri-safe pm. I was also told not to go in the room. That's probably overkill, but until there are more studies they will be overly cautious with us.

Inga has posted studies/articles on mri's on regular pm's that have been successful. There are a growing number of facilities offering mri's to those of us with older pm's. But most of them are still terrified of us!

New reearch

by Harrie - 2014-09-29 06:09:27

I was discussing this yesterday with the tech here in Oz. She said they are doing new research all the time, and in fact there was a new study which was released on the weekend. If I can find the link I'll post it. From the research I've done, I believe the guidelines for safe mri's are very conservative. I think the reluctance of imaging places to do mri's on patients with compatible devices stems from the additional precautions which need to be taken, plus ignorance about the existence of MRI conditional devices.

spoke to manufacturer

by joelcr3 - 2014-09-29 09:09:10

I am new today is a week. I called Biotronic and they said it is safe internationally but not for use in USA. he assured me that nothing would happen if I ever had one BUT it would void the warrentee. Call your company for advice

How interesting..

by Harrie - 2014-10-01 06:10:03

Do they come with a warranty?? Or just in the US? I certainly didn't get a warranty card!

warranties

by Tracey_E - 2014-10-02 08:10:52

Yes, they all come with a warranty! Hopefully we will never need to use it. It's not a card, it's in the paperwork they give us at the hospital.

You know you're wired when...

Bad hair days can be blamed on your device shorting out.

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