MRI

Depends on what sort of MRI

by crustyg - 2021-02-23 11:14:20

A cardiac MRI usually involves an IV injection (helps show heart muscle blood flow) and is a fairly long procedure - probably 40min.  A cervical spine MRI is usually without contrast, fairly quick, 20min.

The procedure is this: you attend, EP-tech sets your PM to an 'MRI-safe' mode (usually a completely fixed pacing rate), you walk into the MRI room, lie down, they give you the noise-reducing headphones, MRI performed - lots of loud thumping/banging/buzzing, with, or without a *lot* of breath-holding, then they slide you out, you sit up very slowly, swing your legs over the side, if you're OK you walk out and take a seat, EP-tech sets your PM back to your normal settings.

Back to your little cubicle, change, go home.

Simples!

MRI

by IAN MC - 2021-02-23 11:44:26

I had an MRI on my lower back recently and it was exactly as Crusty described.

I was slightly nervous beforehand as I have a pacemaker card which explicitly says    "  NOT MRI SAFE  " but it was a happy ending...I am still alive ...and it really was a piece of cake.

Ian

Same

by AgentX86 - 2021-02-23 15:45:22

The only difference is that I didn't have to change.  I just put everything in my pockets on the counted next to the MRI machine and lay down on the "conveyor", for search of a better term.  They didn't care if I took my belt, and metal buckle off.  The MRI was of my head so my body wasn't in the tube, just from the shoulders up.

I had an MRI some years ago of my heart (they couldn't see what they wanted with the echo), before I had a PM.  I was sorta claustrophobic at the time but OK as long as I had plenty of air.  Any heat or lack circulating are would freak me out.  I had no problem, other than the room was freezing cold.  No heat there! ;-)  Since, I've had a few MRIs without any problem.

The only issue I had with the PM and MRI was  getting everyone to sign off on the procedure.  The radiologists wanted nothing to do with the responsibiluty so required a lot of signoffs.  I was on vacation when the doctors wanted to take an MRI but no radiologist would go near me and made all sorts of excuses. I had to settle for a CAT scan to make sure there was nothing dreadfully wrong, until I got home.  After I got back, it took another month to make everyone happy enough to do the MRI.  The day of the procedure, I was in and out in a half an hour, including the time it took them to find the PM tech to do his thing.

Best of luck!

by Pinkit94 - 2021-02-23 15:51:41

I had a cardiac MRI and a more recent knee MRI, much like yourself, I had to have it done in the hospital. My experiences were very pleasant, at first, the device rep came in and for me, they were able to just turn the device off (I am not pacemaker dependent) then, I was hooked up to a heart monitor, they gave me headphones, and asked me what music I wanted to listen to (I picked top hits). The knee one took 15 min tops, the heart one took 45 min - for this one there was lots of breath-holding, and when they gave me the contrast I felt like I peed my pants (I didn't).  As far as the claustrophobia, I made sure I had something pleasant to look forward post MRI, I made plans with a friend to visit my favorite crepe place. Best of luck!

MRI and heart device

by islandgirl - 2021-02-25 23:15:34

With my last cardiac MRI (I will not have another one as there was too much artifact), they took a chest xray to make sure there were no loose leads.  They had paperwork from my EP regarding settings.  They had contacted device company to insurance MRI compliance.  Device tech came and put the device in 'safe mode' (to my knowledge they never turn it off, they take it out of programming), hooked up EKG and the MRI was quickly performed.  Device tech came back and reprogrammed, and I was out of there.  I keep my eyes closed in the tube.  They also gave me headphones and I got a choice of tunes.