MRI-Safe Pacemaker
Reported October 17, 2008
ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — More than one million people in the United States depend on pacemakers to keep their heart’s beating right, but the devices have not allowed in MRI machines until now.
Her grandson Bryten is the love of her life and the reason why 47-year-old Rhonda Jones keeps fighting.
“I’m not going to miss out on watching him grow up,” Jones told Ivanhoe.
Making it to Bryten’s third birthday hasn’t been easy for her. In the middle of a battle with cancer of the soft tissue, Jones’s health problems shifted to her heart.
“It’s just been one health thing after another,” Jones recalled.
Doctors Jones her best option for her irregular heartbeat was a pacemaker, but that meant the MRIS that monitored her cancer were off limits.
“They were taking an option out of my doctor’s hands that was possibly life saving down the road to me,” Jones said.
“In the past, there have been deaths associated with MRIs and pacemakers,” David Bello, M.D., a cardiac electrophysiologist at Orlando Regional Medical Center in Orlando, Fla., explained to Ivanhoe.
The strong magnets can cause pacemakers to move, turn off or overheat.
“The MRI can heat the pacemaker just like a microwave when you place food inside,” Dr. Bello described. “It’s kind of the same principle.”
Now, doctors are testing an MRI compatible pacemaker. The device minimizes the level of energy it transmits and ignores the magnetic pull. The initial round of tests showed the new pacemaker is safe.
After Jones had the device implanted, she scheduled her yearly MRI without hesitation.
“You have so many other things going through your mind, so many other worries and everything else and this is just one worry I don’t have,” she said. “I don’t have to worry about it.”
Her focus is now on her grandson — a little boy who won’t allow her to slow down.
Results of a clinical trail showed no MRI related complications with the new device and no heart rhythm problems during scanning. Doctors say the new pacemaker will be available to the public next year.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Medtronic, Inc., Heart Education Specialists
(800) 930-9374
http://www.medtronic.com