Can a person with a pacemaker have an MRI?
I have had the need to research this question recently and, at the present time, the answer depends on several things that I will try to explain below:
Advances in technology and medicine have extended the life expectancy of our elderly population to an advanced age where many organs start to malfunction or fail, and the heart is no exception, so when the heart rate becomes too slow, cardiac surgeons install a pacemaker to give it a kick and increase the heart rate as needed.
Pacemakers are commonly found in many of our senior citizens, and it is estimated that 75% of persons implanted with a pacemaker will need an MRI for some other part of their body.
Unfortunately, pacemakers are made of metal, with metal leads and electronic components that are susceptible to electromagnetic fields and radiofrequencies, and MRI’s produce both of these which can cause a pacemaker to malfunction.
In the past, it was not recommended and adverse effects were seen such as misfiring and heating of the leads, so in order to be able to do necessary MRI’s in persons with a pacemaker, two things were developed:
- The MRI-Conditional Pacemaker, a new kind of pacemaker that can be scanned by MRI’s of 1.5 Teslas or less.
- And a protocol for a “Safe Performance of Extra-thoracic Magnetic Resonance Imaging at 1.5 Tesla in the Presence of Cardiac Pacemakers in Non–Pacemaker-Dependent Patients”.
The protocol and guidelines to determine which patients can have an MRI and which should not is explained in more detail in this webpage from the Mayo Clinic:
well informed MRI department should be aware of this information.
I hope this information may serve as a quick reference to those researching this topic.
West Palm Beach Dentist
Carlos Boudet, DDS, DICOI
1840 Forest Hill Blvd, Suite 204
West Palm Beach, Florida 33406
Phone: (561) 968 6022
Carlos Boudet, DDS, DICOI
1840 Forest Hill Blvd, Suite 204
West Palm Beach, Florida 33406
Phone: (561) 968 6022
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