Hello everybody,
I've just received the following from one of our professors. I think I remember AMMRL people discussing pace maker safety. I don't know anything specifically about the cochlear implants - only general 5-gauss-perimeter recommendation. Probably we don't have to worry because both NMR lab entry door and operators table are outside of the 2.5 m - 5 G radius of our 9.4 T magnet. Moreover, this person is not a user of the NMR spectrometers (but his students are).
If you have experience with cochlear implants please send me your comments/suggestions.
Thanks,
Piotr
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Piotr, you may have heard that I have had a cochlear implant (mostly titanium, with electronics) installed inside my head to restore hearing. Once you have a cochlear implant you can no longer have an MRI because the magnetic field can destroy the internal electronics of the CI. So this brings up the question- what is the minimal safe distance for me around the departmental NMRs? Do you know anything about this? For prosthetics (pace makers, etc), they talk about the "5 gauss perimeter" which is 2.2 m for a 400 MHz machine, right? Is that the distance the rope is around the 400? How far is the magnet from the door to the NMR room, and how many gauss remain at the door entry point? Is it low enough I don't have to worry as long as I stay outside the room? Can you provide some insights on this?
Piotr Dobrowolski Ph.D.
NMR/EPR Manager
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Utah State University
0300 Old Main Hill, Logan UT 84322-0300
telephone: (435) 797-1673
fax: (435) 797-3390
http://www.chem.usu.edu/pages/facilities/nmrfacility.html
Received on Mon Sep 24 2007 - 15:05:44 MST