MRI with abandoned lead

My Heart Transplant team are moving to using MRI rather than ultrasound to image our hearts, where possible, because of the improved quality of information it gives them.  

My current pacemaker and leads are MRI compatible, but I have an abandoned lead that predates my transplant and is neither connected to my pacemaker or to my heart; it had occluded a vein pretty thoroughly and it would have taken too long (and needed a set of skills not present in the theatre) to remove it during the transplant operation -- they did remove my ICD and its associated lead.  I believe the abandoned lead has at least one terminal in place, not sure about the second.  It is MRI-compatible.

My question: will it stop me having an MRI? (Yes, the Transplant Team are going to investigate, but there are some pretty clued-up peaople here).  My guess is it's rare enough that nobody will commit to an answer and they'll decide to play safe...

1 Comments

old leads and mri

by Tracey_E - 2024-11-19 10:14:34

The risk having an mri with old leads is them heating and damaging the heart. If it's not in the heart, then it shouldn't be a problem. But that doesn't mean you may not have trouble finding a facility willing to do it. 

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