A new study brings good news to patients with pacemakers who are considering MRI, reports Reuters.
Until now, the sensitive electronics of older pacemakers and implantable defibrillators were thought to be vulnerable to disruption when subjected to the magnetic fields and radio waves that allow magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, to see into the body.
The new study in The New England Journal of Medicine “confirms that pretty much anybody who has a pacemaker or implanted defibrillator can, with very few restrictions, safely get an MRI scan if they need it,” as long as the devices are properly adjusted before the scan and safeguards are in place, coauthor Dr. Henry Halperin, professor of medicine, radiology and biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, told Reuters Health in a telephone interview.
