Is anyone an MRI operative....I have questions?

[SleepyKat]

Sorry if anyone has done an AMA on this before....if so I missed it.

I was thinking today -

How often do people press the emergency buzzer and can’t carry on?

How often do people forget bits of metal work and when this happens what’s the usual result? Have you seen people have their earrings ripped out, etc?

Do underwires or fastenings in bras not affect it? When I had an mri that wasn’t one of the questions I was asked about. I’d worn a sports bra with no wire or fasteners anyway but wondered why I wasn’t checked.

Not an MRI operative but having just had one I’m quite interested in the answers to your questions! Surprised about the bra one though as I was asked to completely strip down apart from my pants (she explicitly told me to take my bra off), and given something suitable to wear.

I’ve had two in the past six months and at neither appt (different hospitals) was I asked about a bra or any zips. Both times I just had to do a checklist saying I’d removed earrings, etc and didn’t have a pacemaker or any shrapnel injuries and a few more questions. But nothing about bras.

First one I forgot to take my earrings out and only realised afterwards! They’re definitely metal. Neither hospital checked on the day by asking if I’d removed earrings, etc. And they tell you to fill the checklist out before getting there, so I filled it out a week prior! Then forgot to remove them on the day.

Interesting! So you just wore your own clothes? I’m guessing your earrings has no iron or other magnetic metals in them... lucky! I had that checklist on the day at the hospital as well as being given the list before the appointment.

I forgot to take my underwire bra off in a mri. It prevented the images from working so I had to take the bra off in the room

Never forgotten the letchy radiographer who was hovering while the other radiographer helped me. I didn't take the bra off until letch left the room. I was aware he probably just returned to the other room and perved from there.

Yes, I wore my own clothes.

That’s bad that you had to take your bra off in the room! Not much dignity for you.

The female radiographer fortunately cottoned on and pretty much tried to block his view.

I have regular mris on my head. I often blank and forget my necklace as I wear it all the time even when showering etc, I literally never take it off so kind of forget it's separate from my body they realise pretty quickly and it's fine, I just remove it. Same for the bra but that was my first mri and I was quite young so I was really confused at the time. I was by myself and hadn't even clicked about clothing, just knew I had to wear leggings instead of jeans and a cardigan rather than a zip hoodie. As for the buzzer. I've only pressed it once but as far as I know it's quite regular that people especially those having their first do panic and buzz.

I trained many years ago as an MRI operative for research (not clinical) studies.

so I can try to answer a few :

• I scanned over 100 people and never had anyone press the emergency button. but these were all healthy people who volunteer for research. you might get more emergencies in a clinical setting

• metal is bad for several reasons. The most important is that any loose bits of magnetic metal (e.g. a coin, a paperclip etc) will fly into the centre of the MRI magnet faster than a bullet. And that can seriously injure or kill the person inside. That is why MRI operatives are so fussed about metal.

If you want to see what happens to metal in an MRI, here is the video:

• if a small piece of fixed metal goes into the scanner & can't move (e.g. earring, underwire bra, braces on your teeth), then it might distort the magnetic field and reduce the quality of the images but it shouldn't hurt anyone.

• electronics in your body (e.g. pacemaker, diabetes pump etc) can be badly affected by the magnet and you could die. Metal in your body (e.g. a heart stent, pins holding a broken limb) could move due to the magnetic field or could heat up. This is why there is so much screening and why it is important to be honest & accurate about past medical procedures. NOTE - a copper contraceptive coil is metal and must be declared.

most hospital grade magnets are much lower power than research magnets and hence are safer & easier to use. A hospital magnet is typically 0.5 Tesla, many research magnets are 3T but they go up to 7T or more.

But whatever strength of magnet you are scanned with, respect the magnet & respect the scanner operator who knows how to use it.

Oh that’s scary because I was never asked about a coil and would not have thought about it....I’ve had a copper coil in the past but luckily not when I had an mri. Off to watch the video, thanks.

For clinical scanners that are a weaker magnet, things like a coil may not be so critical. but for research, we have to be very super careful.