Would anyone like to share their experience who's had an MRI post pacemaker?

I was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and need to get an MRI.  I have a dual chamber pacemaker that's MRI capatible but am still a little nervous.  I have no problems being in the machine.  It's just the thought of all those magnets around me.  Does anyone want to share their experience?  I'm aware that the MRI feature needs to be turned on first.

2 Comments

Well...

by AgentX86 - 2019-10-29 23:22:50

I was supposed to have an MRI last weekend but the hospital decided that they weren't up for it so sent me back home to have it done here.  I've been having some problems being seen by  neurologist so haven't had it done yet.

MRI

by Gemita - 2019-10-30 03:03:44

Dear Mathteacher,

Firstly I am so sorry to hear of your diagnosis and I do wish you well. I am a cancer survivor so I do understand what you are facing but there is so much that can be done today to help you.

I believe most MRI conditional pacemakers today can safely handle an MRI providing certain pre checks are carried out and a patient's unique health problems are taken into consideration, especially if they are pacemaker dependent.  The important point is that a pacemaker should be checked before and after the procedure and its pacing function carefully monitored throughout the scan.  

My husband (81) recently had an MRI thoracic spine/chest. He has a single lead pacemaker and is not pacemaker dependent. Before the procedure a cardiac nurse arranged a chest X-ray to check position of lead/pacemaker. She then carried out a number of pre MRI checks and set pacemaker to safe mode for duration scan. I do not know the technical details/programming.

My husband was monitored closely during procedure by cardiac staff and afterwards his pacemaker was reprogrammed back to its pre scan settings and he had another x-ray to make sure position device/leads were unchanged. I questioned him thoroughly afterwards and he reported no adverse affects. His pacemaker has been working fine. Good luck

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