Bad Back MRI and the bipap vent

Hi,
MRI uses very strong magnets and your ventilator will have metal in it so it’s likely it would be pulled towards the magnetic field. I was told to leave my walking stick outside the MRI room as it may have a metal tip on it and it could be pulled into the scanner.
Michael

Hi,
Cat scan doesn’t use magnets. It uses x ray and so is safe if you have metal in your body.
Michael

I did a quick look up (I did a degree in medical electronics which covered use of MRI devices) of ye olde books to check.

MRI is quite swish – it uses magnets and radio frequencies to change the direction your cell molecules point! Each cell has some liquid in it (water, fat etc) and different cells all have unique ways their directions point to. These changes then make up MRI pictures – as if you opened up a person and took a look! CT (x rays) are great for hard parts of the body like bones – but liquid and squishy parts show up best on an MRI… especially if a dye is injected.

anyway… all sorts of things affect the scan – static fields, radio (RF) fields and magnetic fields that are produced can damage equipment like vents. At one time you were not even allowed to let in a patients who had washed their hair recently as magnetic particles in the shampoo broke the machines. Patients who have shrapnel in them can have it fly out if magnetised!

The solution is a vent that is MRI safe – such things exist because the scans are needed by very ill people and the likes of you and me. Such a vent does not have microprocessors / chips and parts (ferromagnetic) which would stop working or break when placed within a magnet.

If an MRI scan is the what you need then you should ask to have it at a hospital equipped with an MRI vent that can use your settings. I would have though every hospital with a&e or intensive care would have this standard.

I have often wondered about this, now I know

lol after 3 years of study I finally get to use the info – I guess it sort of came in useful eventually Never did quite make the bionic body – perhaps a little hopeful for a first degree project… ! I’ll stick to knickers.

@catatude wrote:

@criptic wrote:

lol after 3 years of study I finally get to use the info – I guess it sort of came in useful eventually Never did quite make the bionic body – perhaps a little hopeful for a first degree project… ! I’ll stick to knickers.

got this image now of bionic style knickers like the wrong trousers from Wallace n Grommit.. well hay ho we all got the wrong genes.

Any development on the MRI Cat?

Hope you got my PM re the NIV nurses. Sure Alison & Co may be able to sort something for you.

Good luck

Gill