I thought I'd seen all of the safety issues in NMR, but here is a new one
for me. A student with cochlear implants wants to be trained on our
Gemini-200, and we are wondering if she should be within the 5 Gauss line
(or even in the room). She says that her doctor won't let her into an MRI
magnet. The implants are some kind of sound transducer mechanically linked
to the eardrum and a wire which makes electrical contact with a nerve. I
don't know if it has active electronics (batteries, etc.) or not. It's
possible that the problem with MRI is the rapid gradients inducing currents
in the wires, rather than the magnetic field. Of course, the field is also
much stronger in the MRI than the stray field experienced inserting a
sample. Does anyone have any authoritative information on this subject, or
anecdotal for that matter? I would appreciate any help. We could have
someone insert the sample for her but she really wants to be independent.
Neil
Neil E. Jacobsen, Ph.D.
NMR Facility Manager
Department of Chemistry
119 Old Chemistry
1306 E. University
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
520-621-8146
FAX 520-621-8407
Received on Thu Jan 19 2006 - 12:46:44 MST