January 17, 2018 – MRI Safety

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Anchor lead: MRIs and cardiac devices can be compatible, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Good news for people with implanted cardiac devices: if you need an MRI scan you can have one safely, research by Henry Halperin and colleagues at Johns Hopkins confirms.

Halperin: This study has about 1500 patients in it. And about 2000 scans, because again there’s a lot of these patients that have repeat scans. And basically we found no significant long term problems with anybody.  :13

Halperin says while the scan can be done safely, it does require expertise to do so.

Halperin: It’s got to be in a center like this. For the MRI conditional devices there’s a protocol for scanning. The device in interrogated before the scan to see that it’s working correctly, then it’s programmed into an MRI safe mode during the scan.  :17

Halperin says the only time a device may be troublesome is when it is near the end of its battery life and needs to be replaced. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.