MRI with non compatible pacemaker.

I currently have two questions regarding 14 year old pacemaker. Shortly will require Atrial lead and Generator replacing and a lumber spine MRI, The pacemaker is not MRI compliant.
Since fitted in 2001, I have not had any problems, .Any advice / experience please. In UK found only one Heart Hospital who says can do.?

3 Comments

not likely

by Tracey_E - 2015-03-31 06:03:57

There are an increasing number of hospitals that will do an mri on a pm that is not mri-compatible, however they usually want the leads to be less than 10 years old so those of us with older leads don't qualify.

If they replace the lead, are they adding it to what's there or extracting and starting new? I would avoid extraction if at all possible, however depending on the importance of the mri, that might be your only way to get one. If you have an older lead- whether it's in use or not- they probably won't want to do the mri.

Good luck!

Ellen

by Tracey_E - 2015-04-02 08:04:00

The risk is not that it will pull it out of the body, the risk is in the leads heating and damaging the heart. There are hospitals currently doing MRI's with pacemakers, more in Europe than the US though that is rapidly changing. If you search Inga's (golden_snitch) comments, she has posted a link more than once to the study that showed ZERO complications. If I'm not mistaken, her dr is the one doing the research. I know more than one person who has had an MRI when CT was insufficient and they came out of it just fine. They won't do it for something minor. It can't be done just anywhere, it needs to be done on special equipment under controlled conditions, but yes it can be done safely.

Not heard of

by Ellen - 2015-04-02 08:04:11

I have not heard of any MRI being done with a pacemaker or any metal device, or the MRI machine can pull it right out of the body! An MRI machine is a huge magnet. Why can't they do a CT Scan? CT scans show up a lot of things. Be Careful!

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