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A couple of days back a local daily published a news item about the inauguration of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Centre in a Hospital in Chennai. The accompanying photograph carried a picture of a person lying on the machine. The person has his belt and watch still on. Another person standing close to him has a pen in his pocket. Nothing unusual in that! Now lets have a look at yet another news item that appeared in the papers a little before the inauguration of the MRI centre in Chennai. 6-year-old Michael Colombini of New York was killed while having a MRI exam, when the machine's powerful magnet caused a metal oxygen canister to fly across the room and hit him in the head. The canister about the size of a fire extinguisher, became magnetized, flew through the air at 20to 30 feet per second and fractured the boy's skull. Michael was earlier operated to remove a benign brain tumour and MRI was being done to assess his recovery before he could be discharged. Colombini's death was not an isolated case. Several MRI accidents have been reported, some of them fatal, involving metal objects as small as paper clips and hairpins. A recent article in The American Journal of Roentgenology speaks about the potential dangers of oxygen tanks being brought into MRI testing areas. The article speaks about five such accidents in 15 years, including four in the last three years. Actually MRI is described as the darling of the medical profession because of its precision and safety. MRI uses two natural forces-magnetic fields and radio waves- to have a look into bones and soft tissues. Till date MRI has not shown any harmful biological effects on patients. The magnetic field produced by the powerful electromagnet of the 10-ton MRI machine is about 30,000 times stronger than the earth's magnetic field. It is strong enough to pull mop buckets and stretchers across the room and turn oxygen cylinders into projectiles. Smaller objects like pagers, bobby pins and pens have proved to be pulled off people. The magnetic field produced by the machine can also erase the information on the magnetic strip found on bankcards and credit cards. As a safeguard against these dangers the area surrounding the MRI machine should be clearly demarcated and should be off limits for all except for trained staff. Also, patients and other persons in the MRI room should be carefully screened for objects that can prove disastrous during the procedure. The patient who is required to undergo the MRI investigation should not have any metallic belongings on his/her person. These could be analogue watches, jewellery, hairpins, and metallic fasteners in the clothing and any other metallic components. The persons accompanying the patient should also take care to remove all such objects from their pockets and hair before entering the area. Persons with a cardiac pacemaker, metal implants and dental plates are also at risk and should be excluded from MRI examination. Individuals, who have a history of a metallic body such as a bullet, shrapnel or any other metallic fragment embedded in their bodies, need extra care before MRI examination. The magnetic field may cause the movement or dislodgement of the metallic foreign body and cause serious injury to the person. Those who have had tattooing on any part of the body can also face problems during MRI examination. The pigments used for tattooing process contain iron and this can interfere with the procedure. Today new technological medical devices have revolutionised the diagnosis and treatment of several dreaded diseases but we need to take care that we do not fall a prey to such devices.
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