Hello again,
Thanks for your responses, which are included below. MRIsafety.com is a
good place to look up different models of devices to see what testing has
been done. Special thanks to Tom Scholz, at Penn for relating his personal
experience wearing an insulin pump in high-field NMR labs for several years.
Our Facility's policy will be to ask the user to remove the pump while
inside the 5 Gauss line, because the pump batteries and motor are magnetic
and could cause the pump to be pulled from its owner.
Cheers,
Jerry Hirschinger, NMR Instrumentation Specialist
Purdue Interdepartmental NMR Facility
560 Oval Dr. West Lafayette, IN 47907-2084
Office: Wetherill 365A
Page: (765) 743-4333 box 4655
Phone / Fax: (765) 494-5288 / 494-0239
"I just read your AMMRL post on insulin pumps. You were absolutely correct
to restrict this person to outside the 5-gauss line until you can verify the
safety of her implant. Probably the single best resource I know of for MR
safety of bio-implants is the website, www.MRISafety.com"
To verify the safety of this device, you will probably need to have
manufacturer and model. If the website doesn’t have the information and they
can’t get it for you, you could probably go back to the manufacturer of the
pump. If they haven’t already tested it for MR-safety, they ought to be
pressed to do so."
"I also had a user with an insulin pump. I suggested strongly that she
remain outside the 5G line of our instruments. I'll be curious to read your
summary. I suspect that we can make strong suggestions and post warning for
those with medical devices, but its ultimately in the hands of the person
with such devices to heed the warnings. Or is it?"
"I would certainly contact the pump manufacturer and get the MRI safety
clearance in writing so that I will have a legal basis, in case.."
"A co-worker forwarded this to me because our (deceased) senior engineer had
an insulin
pump for the past few years. However, he also had a fancy pacemaker (just
like Dick Cheney's). His physicians were not sure whether magneticfields
had any effect on these medical devices or not. He was told hecould
experiment a little if he felt comfortable doing so. His desk was outside
the 5 G line. He sometimes worked between the 5 and 10 G lines and that
didn't seem to cause problems. However, the higher fields close to our
unshielded 500 MHz wide bore
magnet definitely affected the motor in the insulin pump. Occasionally (~
monthly) he would briefly remove his insulin pump (i.e., leave it at his
desk) so he could work closer to the magnet. He said a brief interuption
was O.K. because he removed the pump to shower in the morning. Nonetheless,
usually one of us (experienced users) would assist him in
trouble-shooting so he could stay outside the 10 G line. He may have tested
his blood sugar and/or given himself a little extra insulin when he
reconnected the pump. He definitely kept the time it was off to a minimum.
I hope these anecdotal observations are at least somewhat helpful to you."
"I don't know about insulin punps but I have a programable SynchroMed EL
infusion pump from Medtronics. They tell me that the pump will stop in a
strong magnetic field, above ~50 gauss, but will restart w/o damage after
leaving the field. I haven't noticed any effects from working around a
widebore 400MHz magnet but stopping a pump could be critical depending on
it's providing and why. You should check with the manufacturer and the user
to be sure."
"Insulin pumps can be disconnected easily for a period of time. My daugther
does this each time she goes swimming. Unless your user intense to spend a
very long time on the machine (which
sounds like a pain anyway) I don't see a big problem"
"It sounds very reasonable to stay outside the 5 Gauss limit. There is a
book by Frank Shellock (Reference manual...) describing what devices that
works, and what does not at 'high field' (intended for use with MRI
systems). Sorry, I don't have the book handy. The following list I received
recently from Frank Shellock:
MAGNETIC RESONANCE SAFETY RESOURCES
TEXTBOOKS
Reference Manual for Magnetic Resonance Safety, Implants and Devices: 2004
Edition
-The latest information from the peer-reviewed literature and other
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Order at: <http://www.MRIsafety.com>www.MRIsafety.com (no credit card
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Order at <
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<
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<
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call CRC Press at (800) 272-7737
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MANAGEMENT
- an accredited video program designed for those professionals who work
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This video/DVD series was planned and produced by Educational Symposia in
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WEBSITES:
<
http://www.MRIsafety.com>
http://www.MRIsafety.com - A web site that
features useful information on MRI bioeffects, safety, and patient
management, a searchable database of "The List", containing over 1,200
implants and objects tested for safety in the MRI environment (over 200
tested at 3-Tesla), and "down-loadable" screening forms for patients and
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www.MRIsafety.com
http://www.IMRSER.org The web site for the Institute for Magnetic Resonance
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Advisory Board, the Corporate Advisory Board as well as recently published
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www.MagneticResonanceSafetyTesting.com The web site for Magnetic Resonance
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Received on Mon Jun 21 2004 - 11:50:23 MST