Re: The MRI and Looping: For Ambient & Experimental Music?

[Travis Hartnett <travishartnett@gmail.com>]

Yeah, I'm thinking there's no chance you're getting any gear inside
the MRI room.  I remember seeing a page of pictures of things that had
been pulled into MRI's, including office chairs and oxygen tanks:



"Metal Drawn to the Magnet
Missile effects is the term generally used to describe the way MR's
high-powered magnet pulls some metallic objects into its field. The
Valhalla case—where an emergency oxygen tank was drawn with such
velocity and force that it killed the young boy in the bore—is the
most horrific incident to be picked up by the popular press, but
similar, nonfatal occurrences happen fairly regularly around the
country.

Routine patient screening before scanning is intended to prevent such
problems, but when imaging centers power down their systems, they
regularly report finding paper clips, pens, keys, staples, and an
array of other magnetized items in the bore. While technologists
usually worry most about these small objects distorting scanning, it's
also important to realize that an MRI magnet can pull a stray hairpin
across the room at 40 miles per hour.1 In fact, Gilk cites a case
where "an MRI patient needed to have a bobby pin surgically removed
from their nasal cavity when the pin was drawn towards the center of
the bore [while] the patient was lying head-in in the scanner."

As if that instance is not serious enough, hemostats, scissors,
wheelchairs, patient gurneys, intravenous poles, and defibrillators
have all been turned into projectiles capable of severe harm. When
nonmedical people enter the magnet room, things can get even worse. In
one instance, a police officer's gun discharged as it was sucked out
of his grip; in another, a firefighter was trapped and nearly
suffocated as he was drawn into the bore when the breathing apparatus
strapped to his back became magnetized in the MRI room. Only slightly
less dangerous—because the people involved managed to escape
injury—are several documented incidents involving mop buckets, vacuum
cleaners, toolboxes, and other everyday items."

On 12/7/05, paul <phaslem@wightman.ca> wrote:
>  I was talking with one of the techs at the hospital where I work about 
>this
> discussion. He told me that there is nothing metal in the room. In fact 
>if
> you have a tattoo, they pack it in ice because something in the ink 
>reacts
> to the high magnetism and makes it really hot. I asked about the 
>Microphone
> they have in the room and he was telling me that all the communication
> wiring is done with fiber optics. I was wondering about using a couple of
> contact pickups, I have a few McIntyres kicking around here, on the door 
>or
> the window and seeing what it would pickup. If I get a chance, I can ask
> about it if you like.
>