MR safety

✍ Scribed by C. Leon Partain; Ronald R. Price

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 29 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1053-1807
• DOI: 10.1002/jmri.10459

✦ Synopsis

WORLD ATTENTION is again focused on MRI with two new Nobel prizes, announced in October 2003, bringing the total to four Nobel prizes in just over one decade to this rapidly developing field (Ernst, Wuethrich, Lauterbur, Mansfield). This represents significant and unprecedented recognition for a single technology over such a short period of time. The future advances in MRI will certainly bring additional surprises in biomedical research and in healthcare delivery. The excitement of progress must be balanced by adequate provisions for safety. We must be diligent in our efforts to protect every individual from the potential risks of placing his or her total body within an MR scanner that may contain a megajoule of energy.

Thresholds for physiological effects and for biohazards have been recognized since the late 1970s (1). Early clinical NMR imaging symposia (2,3) and textbooks (4 -6) in the 1980s discussed the biological effects of NMR and proposed initial clinical operating guidelines. Recent efforts have led to more detailed analysis of the practical health effects and safety issues, and the definition of operating guidelines for MRI (7-9).

The dedicated efforts of many are sincerely appreciated as we move toward the safe utilization of the tremendous biomedical capability of MRI. The need for uniformity, consistency, independence, freedom from commercial bias, and broad-based participation by scientifically oriented societies is obvious. As the American College of Radiology MR Safe Practice Guidelines are evaluated and improved (10), it is hoped that other scientific societies, including the ISMRM, through their safety committees and other recognized investigators, will be available, interested, and invited to participate in the critically important area of MR safety.